For 90 years veterans and their families have donated objects to which they ascribe great value to the Anzac Memorial. Each object has its own personal history of service and sacrifice.

To celebrate the National Trust’s Australian Heritage Festival, the Anzac Memorial’s Curatorial and Learning teams will bring to life the stories behind some of the Memorial’s long-standing or recently acquired collections.

Dr Michael Lea and the Anzac Memorial’s Learning Team, will explore the letters from Dr Reginald ‘Rex’ Angel Money CBE MC’s collection. Recently unearthed, the letters are an invaluable window into one man’s war - the experience of a courageous and sensitive young Australian a long way from home, surviving some of the deadliest killing fields in history.

Rebecca Jones will delve into the rich history of the Sphinx Memorial in Sydney’s Kuring-Gai Chase National Park. The Anzac Memorial’s collection includes a range of documents spanning layout diagrams of proposed plantings and paths, illustrations, media reactions to the memorial and Sphinx Monument promotional and interpretive booklets from the 1930s. Archived for over 90 years it is time they are ‘unearthed’.

Brad Manera and Jacqueline Reid will share the story of Captain Alfred Shout VC MC, one of the first soldiers from NSW to earn the Victoria Cross in the Great War. Shout was an extraordinary soldier, but little was known about his previous life in Africa between the Boer War and migrating to Australia. Uncatalogued information in the archives in Zimbabwe has recently been ‘unearthed’ to reveal information about Shout’s life during those missing years in southern Africa.

This free event will be held on Tuesday, 13 May from 3.00pm to 5.00pm in the Memorial's Auditorium on Lower Ground level. Entry is via Liverpool Street.

Places are limited.

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This event is hosted by the Anzac Memorial as part of the National Trust’s Australian Heritage Festival.