About this record

Around 264,000 service personnel were repatriated over the course of the First World War. Bringing the Australian troops home was an enormous undertaking. The majority were returned after the Armistice was signed. By that time, worldwide shipping shortages meant most service personnel had to wait weeks and sometimes months for a sea passage from Great Britain to Australia. Vocational schemes were set up in British businesses, educational institutions and farms to prepare veterans for their return to civilian life – and to keep the waiting troops occupied.

Lieutenant James Fleming wrote to his brother on the day of the Armistice in November 1918: ‘Just news this morning the Germans have signed the Armistice. No more fighting. Expect to be coming home soon.’ James spent part of the wait in the care of the 3rd London General Hospital after being wounded severely in the mouth and buttock on 29 September 1918 in France. He was discharged from hospital in late January 1919 and arrived in Australia on 16 May.