Two soldiers, two records

William Allan Irwin was an Aboriginal man from New South Wales who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1916. He served overseas with the 33rd Battalion and was killed in action in France in 1917. His service record documents his enlistment and military service, but cannot tell us everything about his thoughts or the experiences of his family. Douglas Grant was a Kuku Yalanji man born in Far North Queensland. He enlisted in 1916 and served with the 13th Battalion. Captured in 1917, he spent time as a prisoner of war in Germany and returned to Australia after the war. Grant was widely reported in the press, but newspaper accounts often reflected the attitudes and assumptions of their time. At the time, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples faced discrimination and restrictions in many parts of Australia. In 1917, the Australian military changed its enlistment rules to accept men of mixed descent if they had one European parent. The rules and their application could be inconsistent. Indigenous servicemen could serve overseas yet still face unequal treatment and barriers at home. Records and public recognition do not represent every soldier’s story equally.