How to Research and Honour Our Returned War Heroes

Many war veterans and their families have endured years of debilitating physical and emotional problems, and as a result they and their families have arguably suffered as much or more that those who have died during all conflicts in which Australia has participated. Because of this the author believes that returned service people have just as much right to be named on community war memorials as those who died during or as a result of their service.

Hundreds of thousands of our returned heroes, primarily from the two World Wars, have not been named on community war memorials. This book explains why this has happened and gives step-by-step guidelines to assist communities to update their memorials. It includes many points not previously revealed to the general public on this topic. It also provides assistance to those wishing to research their service person ancestors as well as school students and other researchers studying our wartime history.

No similar book has been previously published. With respect to community war memorials the orientation of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Australian War Memorial and the RSL is primarily directed towards those who died during or a result of their service. Their assistance is orientated to people researching individuals, not community researchers desirous of updating their local war memorials with a large number of names. This book can be regarded as a text book for those wanting to give our returned heroes, and those who died, the long-overdue recognition they so rightly deserve.

About the Author

Ian Burrett is a retired Vietnam veteran. His inspiration for writing this book is his father, Lt Col Athol Frederick Burrett DSO MID. Of the 12 000 Aussies who landed at Gallipoli on April 25th and 26th, 1915, Athol was one of less than 300 still fighting when World War I ended. Ian is currently the treasurer of the Portland NSW RSL sub-Branch. He has been a JP in NSW for nearly fifty years. Ian’s formative years were spent in Goulburn, NSW, and he was heavily into sport. He represented Goulburn in hockey, table tennis, swimming and snooker. He played a side drum in scout and school cadet bands at Anzac Day marches.

Ian has had a varied career, primarily in real estate, an area he worked in for about twenty-five years. He was the principal of Raine & Horne franchises at Kincumber and Avoca Beach, on the Central Coast of NSW. Prior to that, based in Sydney, he was regarded as one of Australia’s leading authorities in assisting accountants in public practice to install internally-managed superannuation funds for their corporate clients. He wrote articles for CCH Australia Ltd and conducted seminars on the topic in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. He was working in the security industry prior to his retirement in 2007.

Now single, Ian was married twice. Ian has two children from his first marriage—Lisa, a solicitor, born 1973 and Brett, a doctor, born 1979.