The French Australian Review – No 56 Australian Winter 2014

HENRY MÉRA, ELAINE LEWIS, IVAN BARKO, Foreword

TOM LOCKLEY, Maurice Guillaux: France’s Forgotten Pioneer Airman in Australia

This article coincides with the centenary of the first postal flight in Australia carried out by French pioneer airman, Maurice Guillaux. That historic flight between Melbourne and Sydney took place in July 1914. The article summarises what can be found out about Guillaux’s life and career, focussing on his two hundred days in Australia and on the refutation of the absurd allegation that in 1917 he was shot as a German spy.

Keywords: Maurice Guillaux, postal flight, airman, Caudron bi-plane, the Pommery Cup, Louis Blériot, Melbourne-Sydney mail flight, World War 1

PETER BROWN & JACQUELINE DWYER, The French-Australian League of Help: Restoring the Record

Drawing on previously unused sources, the authors recount the history of the French-Australian League of Help and an appraisal of its work. It also analyses the representation of the League in the press and in subsequent historical writing.

Keywords: French-Australian League of Help, ‘France’s Day’ 1917 (14th July), Marie-Thérèse Playoust, W.A. Holman, Augustine Soubeiran, public donations, Paris Distribution Committee, Pau Mission, orphanages in France

MARIE RAMSLAND, War, Writing and the Wenz Family

An exploration of the close relationship between Australia and France during World War 1 through the writings and actions of members of the Wenz family, particularly those of the French-Australian author Paul.

Kewords: World War 1, Paul Wenz, Wenz family, Red Cross, wool traders, Champagne region

EDWARD DUYKER, France’s Military Dead in Australia – an Historical Survey

This article is an edited text of a talk given by Edward Duyker to the Francophone Association of Southern Sydney earlier this year. It is an historical record of French military and naval graves in Australia.

Keywords: Australian war graves in France, French military graves in Australia, return of French servicemen from World War 1

BOOK REVIEWS

Andrew Plant, The Poppy, reviewed by Colin Nettelbeck

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes

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