Personal cameras were banned on the Western Front in the First World War. British generals did not want anyone to see the enormous human slaughter that was taking place in the fields of France and Belgium. Official photographers were permitted to only take propaganda photographs. Fearing the Anzac story would be ignored in the retelling, official war correspondent Charles Bean argued strongly for Australia to have a dedicated photographer. Bean was eventually assigned an enigmatic polar explorer, George Hubert Wilkins, who had recently returned from three years alone in the Arctic.
Within weeks of arriving at the Front, Wilkins' exploits were legendary. He did what no photographer had previously dared to do. He went ‘over the top’ with the troops and ran forward to photograph the actual fighting. He led soldiers into battle, was wounded nine times and became the only Australian photographer, from any war, to receive a combat decoration. All while he refused to carry a gun and only armed himself with a bulky glass-plate camera. General John Monash described him as, 'the bravest man in my army'.
Wilkins was ultimately responsible for Australia’s official collection of war photographs, now held at the Australian War Memorial.
At the end of the war, Wilkins returned to polar exploring and his life became shrouded in secrecy. After his death in America in 1958 his lifetime collection of correspondence, photographs and manuscripts was sold, destroyed or hidden.
In this fascinating talk, illustrated with previously unseen photographs and film, author Jeff Maynard will tell how he discovered Wilkins’ lost records in an Amish barn in 2014, and reveal the remarkable story of the man who put a face to the Anzac legend.
Jeff Maynard’s book, The Unseen Anzac: how an enigmatic polar explorer created Australia’s World War I photographs, will be available for sale and signing after the presentation.
