Case study of a World War 1 Service Record

John ‘Barney’ Hines - The Souvenir King

Background

This case study, written by Graeme Hosken, was first designed as an assessment task for Year 10 Elective History students of the Dubbo School of Distance Education, New South Wales.

The assessment task has been modified for use as a classroom activity or as an independent learning activity. It may also be used as a practice for interpreting a World War 1 Service Record, as available from the National Archives of Australia.
This case study is complementary to the publication, digging for Diggers [see cover image at right], by Graeme Hosken, published by the ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee of Queensland in 2002.

You can order a copy of digging for Diggers and many other publications directly from this website by clicking on the image at right.

Working through the activity

This activity is based on the actual World War I service record of an Australian soldier who served in France and Belgium (on the ‘Western Front’). Activity participants are required to interpret his service record and other material relating to the soldier.

It is designed for groups or individuals and consists of a series of questions which are required to be answered by reference to copies of relevant pages of the soldier's Service Record or to other source data. All activity requirements, including source data are encapsulated in the single 28-page file provided.

All that needs to be done is to download the Acrobat™ file, print it as required and distribute to activity participants. Note: the file size, at 789kb because of the large number of images involved, may require a download time of up to 10 minutes, depending on the quality of your internet connection.

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