Australia's Fighting Sons of the Empire. Portraits and Biographies of Australians in the Great War
Sydney, B. Jackson & Co., [1919].
Large quarto, 387, [1] (colophon) pages with over 1500 portrait illustrations (from photographs) - but it may lack one leaf (pages 9/10) - see below.
Crocodile-pattern cloth a little worn and bumped at the extremities; signs of age and use; overall, a decent copy. Loosely inserted is a large 'Roll of Honour' (printed recto only, now a little worn): it carries service details of four members of the Stagg family from Inverell (745 Corporal Fred L. Staggs; 565 Private Neil Oswald Staggs; 744 Private Andrew Edward Staggs; and Private George Henry Staggs), with a group portrait illustration of three of them.
Unusually, the biographical entries in the book are grouped together by the places the men came from (although this is useful in a parochial sense), and there are many family groups. With very few exceptions, all the men commemorated here appear to come from northern NSW and southern Queensland (but not Brisbane), indicating that this was the area canvassed for contributions. We have previously handled a copy of this work which contained an index to these place-names, and the contents were 'arranged' thus - unfortunately in no particular order, other than NSW first (pages 11-332), Queensland last (pages 333-383). NSW commences with Grafton and ends with Maitland, with latecomers from all areas listed after that. However, this copy has no index, and we suspect it was on the errant leaf noted above. The publication date is ascertained from the 'Lismore Northern Star' of 21 May 1919, which carries an advertisement from the publishers advising their many subscribers that the book would be delivered that month. Not in Dornbusch; not in Fielding and O'Neill.
Item #129536
Price (AUD):
$550.00