Between 1914 and 1918, nearly 200 Queensland policemen volunteered to fight in the First World War, or nearly 20 per cent of the total contingent between 1914 and 1916, the year with the highest numbers enlisting. This number is significantly larger, by almost half, than was initially obtained from the lists circulated internally or quoted in the CoP Annual Reports, 128 men. Many of these men were assigned to the British Expeditionary Forces and fought and died in Turkey and Egypt, the battalions were heavily involved in establishing and defending the front line of the ANZAC beachhead. Many more perished on the Western Front.
Photograph of the landing on Gallipoli beach by ANZAC troops Turkey 1915, JOL, SLQ
The names of the 30 men, on leave from their policing roles, who were killed in action have been commemorated on the Queensland Police Memorial, which was opened on November 2018 and is located at 80 George Street, Brisbane, as well as on the memorial website https://www.police.qld.gov.au/police-memorial
The new Queensland Police Memorial, Brisbane Botanical Gardens.
Just under 60 new names emerged following a painstaking research and cross-referencing of the sources held at the Queensland Police Museum with the database of AIF files held at the National Archives Australia (Series No B2455). Queensland Police recruits’ entries for the first two decades have been reviewed, the men that resigned or were dismissed before the war began on 28 July 1914 were removed, along with the recruits that were sworn in after November 1918.
Register of Members of the Police Force, QPM Collection
The remaining dataset of just under 600 names was matched against related records at the Police Museum as well as the Australian Imperial Force files held at the National Archives Australia. Previous research work showed some of the personnel files have already been identified as of policemen that have enlisted to fight in the First World War. An exhaustive, targeted but total, search of all recruits sworn in between 1899 and throughout the 1900s yielded 130 names, these were then also matched again the sample initially identified.
Members of the Police Force who have enlisted for Active Service with the Australian Imperial Forces up to 3rd Dec 1916, QP Museum Collection
Following the October 1916 Memorandum which suspended leave for future enlistments due to personnel shortages, a significant number of policemen chose to resign and enlist anyway without declaring their intent.
A few were dismissed and a small number indicated their plans to join the war effort. Recognising this fact, a window of six months has been applied to the date of separation from the Queensland Police Force to enlistment in the AIF.
The research project is ongoing, the final findings will be published next year.
The content was researched and written by Dr Anastasia Dukova using the findings to date. This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available.
The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane.
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“FROM the VAULT – Queensland Police World War One Volunteers, New Names Discovered” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode