John Treloar (museum administrator)
Encyclopedia
John Linton Treloar, OBE (10 December 1894 – 28 January 1952) was an Australian archivist
and the second director of the Australian War Memorial
(AWM). During World War I
he served in several staff roles and later headed the First Australian Imperial Force's
(AIF) record-keeping unit. From 1920 Treloar played an important role in establishing the AWM as its director. He headed an Australian Government department during the first years of World War II
, and spent the remainder of the war in charge of the Australian military's
history section. Treloar returned to the AWM in 1946, and continued as its director until his death.
Treloar's career was focussed on the Australian military and its history. Prior to World War I he worked as a clerk in the Department of Defence
and, after volunteering for the AIF in 1914, formed part of the Australian Army
officer Brudenell White's
staff for most of the war's first years. He was appointed commander of the Australian War Records Section
(AWRS) in 1917. In this position, he improved the AIF's records and collected a large number of artefacts for later display in Australia. Treloar was appointed the director of what eventually became the AWM in 1920, and was a key figure in establishing the Memorial and raising funds for its permanent building in Canberra
. He left the AWM at the outbreak of World War II to lead the Australian Government's Department of Information
, but was effectively sidelined for much of 1940. In early 1941 he was appointed to command the Australian military's Military History and Information Section with similar responsibilities to those he had held during World War I. He attempted to intervene in the management of the AWM during his absence, however, to the increasing frustration of its acting director. Treloar worked intensely in all his roles and suffered periods of ill-health as a result. Following the war, he returned to the Memorial in 1946 but his performance deteriorated over time, possibly due to exhaustion. He died in January 1952.
Treloar continues to be regarded as an important figure in Australian military history
. His principal achievements are seen as gathering and classifying Australia's records of the world wars and successfully establishing the AWM. The street behind the Memorial and its main storage annex were named in Treloar's honour following his death.
on 10 December 1894. His father was a sales representative for Carlton & United Breweries
and his mother was a strict Methodist. Treloar was educated at Albert Park State School and became a trained Sunday school
teacher. He was not able to attend university, but sought self-education in Melbourne's museums and libraries. Treloar also participated in his school's cadet unit
, and believed that the military offered a means to follow his ambition for a career in a field other than small business. He was also a capable footballer, cricket player and athlete and was invited to train with the South Melbourne Football Club
. He took his father's advice to wait until he was 21 before playing senior games, however, and instead took a job with the Department of Defence after he left school in 1911. In this position he worked as a clerk for Brudenell White
, who was later a leading Australian staff officer of World War I and the commander of the Australian Army during the early months of World War II.
On 16 August 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Treloar enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force
(AIF) and became a staff sergeant working for White in the headquarters of the 1st Division
. He landed at Anzac Cove
with the rest of the 1st Division's Headquarters during the morning of 25 April 1915, and subsequently participated in the Gallipoli Campaign. Treloar's duties were mainly clerical, and included typing reports, orders and dispatches from senior officers. He frequently worked from 7 am to midnight, and this took a toll on his health. He contracted typhoid in late August, and was evacuated to Egypt on 4 September. Treloar came close to dying from this disease, and was returned to Australia to recuperate. He arrived in Melbourne on 4 December 1915. During his convalescence, Treloar resumed a pre-war friendship with Clarissa Aldridge and the couple became engaged.
When he recovered his health, Treloar returned to the military. An attempt to rejoin Brudenell White's staff was unsuccessful, and he instead was posted to the Australian Flying Corps
(AFC) with the rank of lieutenant
. In February 1916, Treloar was assigned to No. 1 Squadron AFC
in Egypt and served as its equipment officer until July 1916, when he was transferred to France to become White's confidential clerk in the headquarters of I Anzac Corps
. At the time of the Battle of Pozières
in late July Treloar was in charge of the corps headquarters' Central Registry, which was responsible for communications within the headquarters as well as distributing orders to its subordinate units. During his staff roles Treloar gained a good understanding of military record-keeping. In May 1917, he was selected by White to command the newly established Australian War Records Section (AWRS), and was promoted to the rank of captain. At the time he knew nothing of the Section's role, and was unable to find any information about it.
Treloar assumed command of the AWRS on 16 May 1917. At this time the Section comprised four enlisted soldiers and occupied two rooms in the British Public Record Office's
(PRO) building in London
. Established upon the urging of the official Australian war correspondent Charles Bean
, the unit was responsible for gathering records to serve as source material for the official histories
that were to be written after the war. At this stage Australia did not have a national archive
or public records office, and the AWRS was the first organisation set up to preserve any Commonwealth Government records.
Treloar's first challenge was to improve the quality of the war diaries
kept by AIF units. These diaries were meant to be maintained by each element of the AIF as a record of its activities for later use by historians, but at the time most units recorded few details. To this end, Treloar met with many of the officers responsible for units' war diaries and frequently provided written advice and feedback on the quality of the records submitted to the Section; these methods had previously been used by the Canadian military
. Treloar also sought to motivate relevant personnel by demonstrating that the diaries were valued and would be important in ensuring that their unit received recognition for its achievements after the war. In August 1917 the AWRS expanded its activities to include collecting artefacts from the French battlefields. Its tasks increased further in September when it took over responsibility for supervising the official war artists
as well as producing and keeping records of non-official publications such as regimental magazines. Individual soldiers were encouraged to contribute artefacts and records, and the AWRS provided museum label
s to combat units to encourage them to record the significance and origins of items they submitted. The AWRS established field offices in France and Egypt, and reached a strength of about 600 soldiers and civilians in November 1918. From November 1917 until August 1918 the war correspondent Henry Gullett
commanded the AWRS subsection in Cairo
; in this role he reported directly to Treloar. As a result of the AWRS' expansion, in March 1918 its headquarters moved from the PRO building to a larger office on Horseferry Road
opposite the main offices of the AIF Administrative Headquarters.
As commander of the AWRS, Treloar worked enthusiastically and at times had to be ordered to take holidays. He told Bean that he was motivated "to do something really worthwhile for Australia" by bringing together the records covering Australia's role in the war. He actively pursued records and artefacts covering a wide range of the AIF's activities. While Bean was impressed by Treloar's achievements, he believed that the young man was pushing himself too hard and was in danger of a breakdown. Although they shared accommodations for a period, the two men were not close. Treloar was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on 3 June 1918 for "services in connection with the war" and was promoted to major
in December 1918. While this promotion recognised his achievements as commander of the AWRS, it was mainly intended to improve his status when he attended meetings of the War Trophies Commission; the British representative on this commission was a major general
. Treloar arranged for Clarissa Aldridge to travel to Britain in 1918, and they were married in London on 5 November. The couple eventually had two daughters and two sons.
Following the war, Treloar continued to organise the records the AWRS had collected. In the months after the war the Section was assigned a large number of soldiers to assist with this task. The AWRS also continued to gather artefacts, and by February 1919 it had a collection of over 25,000 items; Treloar regarded this as "a good collection" but still not sufficient. He sought to collect records and memorabilia relevant to all aspects of Australia's experience in World War I, including material concerning the worst aspects of the Australian military. In doing so, Treloar deliberately did not make judgments on the historical value of the records and items submitted to the AWRS as he believed that this task should be left to others. On 3 June 1919 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), for "valuable services rendered in connexion with the war". Treloar arrived back in Australia on 18 July 1919.
The large quantity of artefacts and records which the AWRS had gathered were also returned to Australia in 1919, though work on organising them into an archive was not completed until 1932. The Australian War Museum was formed in 1919 on the basis of the Section's collection, and Treloar joined the Museum at some stage during the year. Henry Gullett was appointed the War Museum's first director after Bean turned down the position so that he could focus on editing and writing the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. Bean, Gullet and Treloar were subsequently the key figures in the establishment of the AWM.
. Treloar was 26 years of age at the time he became director of the Museum and was responsible for the difficult task of establishing the institution. Between 1920 and 1922 he personally undertook much of the work associated with developing the Museum's first major exhibition, which opened in Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building
on Anzac Day
1922. During this period the staff of the Australian War Museum were also responsible for providing administrative support for a program to distribute captured German equipment as war trophies
to the Australian states. Treloar was a member of the committee overseeing this effort, and the associated administrative load came close to overwhelming him.
Treloar continued to expand the Australian War Museum's collections during the 1920s. For instance, in 1921 he wrote to all the Australian Victoria Cross recipients of World War I or their families to ask that they donate their wartime diaries or other personal items. The Museum also actively sought the wartime diaries and letters written by other members of the AIF; Treloar hoped that these records would allow a psychological study to be conducted on the men who had joined the AIF. Taking up an idea of Bean's, Treloar also oversaw the development of several diorama
s depicting key Australian battles of the war and engaged professional artists to make the models. Several of the dioramas produced in the 1920s remain on display in the AWM and are among its most popular exhibits. Treloar also oversaw the completion of the artworks which had been commissioned from the official war artists during World War I and, in collaboration with Bean, ordered additional works.
During its early years the AWM existed in a parlous state, and Treloar raised funds and advocated construction of a permanent building to house its records and collection of artefacts. Treloar and Bean convinced the Museum's governing committee that it needed to raise funds so that the Museum was not entirely dependent on Government funding for its permanent building. To this end, Treloar established a sales section in the Museum in 1921 and recruited salesmen to sell books, reproductions of artworks and photographs as well as surplus items from the collection such as German helmet
s and rifle cartridges
. The Government was slow to commit to building a permanent home for the Museum's collection, however, and Treloar considered resigning in July 1922 to take up a position in the Department of Immigration. He ultimately decided against doing so, however. In mid-1923 he was temporarily released from the Museum and travelled to London as the secretary of Australia's contribution to the British Empire Exhibition
. He returned to Australia in early 1925. During Treloar's absence the Museum moved to Sydney
, where its collection was housed in the Sydney Exhibition Building from April 1925. The institution was renamed the Australian War Memorial during this year, and following the passage of the Australian War Memorial Act by the Parliament of Australia
in September was formally established as the national memorial to the Australians killed during World War I. This act specified that the Memorial would be overseen by a twelve person Board of Management whose members were appointed by the Governor General of Australia. Treolar reported to this board, but it generally allowed him to run the Memorial as he saw fit. Treloar travelled to London again in 1927 to work on the British Empire Exhibition scheduled for that year, but returned after a few months when it was cancelled. On 8 December 1927 Treloar and the rest of the War Memorial's staff were appointed permanently to their positions; prior to this date they had been employed under temporary arrangements and Treloar had technically been a member of the Army's headquarters. Treloar took a brief leave of absence in 1931 to help organise the Empire Exhibition that was planned for Sydney.
The construction of a permanent building for the Memorial was delayed by the Great Depression
. In January 1924 the Commonwealth Government's Cabinet
approved a proposal to construct the War Memorial at the foot of Mount Ainslie
in Canberra
. An architectural competition was subsequently held, and Treloar was responsible for selecting the final designs to be considered after the judging panel had reduced the number of entries from 69 to 29. None of these designs met all the necessary criteria, but two of the architects responsible for highly placed designs agreed to collaborate to produce a final design. Plans for the Memorial building were approved by the Commonwealth Parliament
in 1928, but funds for construction work were not available due to the impact of the Great Depression. Work finally began on the building in 1933, and it was completed in 1941. Until 1935, Treloar and the Memorial's administrative staff were located in Melbourne while the collection was split between Sydney and Melbourne. In that year, Treloar, along with 24 other Memorial staff, moved into the uncompleted building in Canberra and the Memorial in Sydney was closed to enable the collection to be relocated.
Treloar continued to seek commercial opportunities to raise funds for the Memorial during the 1920s and 1930s. As well as selling guidebooks, reproductions of artworks and surplus items, the Memorial raised substantial amounts of money from placing an admission fee on Will Longstaff's
painting Menin Gate at Midnight
when it went on display in 1929. This painting proved so popular that Treloar engaged ex-servicemen to sell reproductions of it door to door. In 1931 Treloar ensured that the Memorial took over responsibility for the publication and distribution of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 when the project suffered financial difficulties due to poor sales. As sales continued to be slow, Treloar actively promoted the series to RSL
branches and members of the Australian Public Service
; a scheme he developed in which public servants purchased the books through regular pay deductions proved particularly successful. Treloar also engaged more salesmen to sell the series to households. These efforts led to a large increase in sales, and Bean remarked that not only had Treloar been more successful in selling the books than Angus & Robertson
, its original publisher, but that "he would do better than [the department store] David Jones
selling shirts". This sales work was in addition to Treloar's regular duties as the Memorial's director, and he received an honorarium
for it.
Treloar would typically work for six days each week, and normally stayed until late at night. In accordance with his Methodist beliefs, he did not work on Sundays. He continued to expand the Memorial's collections by encouraging individuals to donate letters and diaries to supplement the official records. Treloar also placed an emphasis on safeguarding the collection; in 1933 he personally investigated the theft of the German cruiser Emdens bell from the Memorial in Sydney after the New South Wales Police broke off its investigation. With Treloar's assistance the bell was recovered later that year. Despite his enthusiasm, Treloar became frustrated by the repeated delays in opening the Memorial during the 1930s and believed that it would not be as successful as he had hoped. As a result, he began actively looking for a new career at the end of 1938, starting by applying to be the secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club
.
Treloar left his position at the Memorial for the duration of World War II. In September 1939 Treloar's close friend Henry Gullett, who at the time was the Minister for Information, appointed him the inaugural secretary
of the Department of Information (DOI). The DOI was the first of 17 new Australian Government departments to be established during the war, and was responsible for both censorship and disseminating government propaganda
. Treloar ran the department in line with traditional Australian Public Service procedures; this included implementing tight internal controls over the DOI's procedures and information dissemination functions as well as taking steps to prevent its work from being politicised. He remained the departmental secretary after Gullett was moved to a different ministry in March 1940, but lost status when Keith Murdoch
was appointed to the new position of Director-General of Information in June that year. Murdoch's appointment was part of a government campaign to generate public support for increased armaments production following the fall of France
, and he placed a stronger emphasis on generating propaganda. Treloar was troubled by the use of the DOI's photographers to produce publicity photographs instead of images with historical value. Gullet was killed in the Canberra air disaster on 13 August 1940. Treloar regained full control of the DOI in December that year when Murdoch resigned, though its photographers were still mainly tasked with taking publicity photos.
At some point in 1940 or early 1941, Treloar requested that he be appointed to command the War Records Section, which formed part of the Second Australian Imperial Force's
administrative headquarters. The Cabinet agreed to this during February 1941. Treloar's responsibilities in this role were to coordinate and control the collection of material to be included in the AWM as well as to supervise the official war artists and photographers; these duties were similar to those he and Bean had undertaken during World War I. While Treloar was appointed to the rank of lieutenant colonel
, he primarily worked for the AWM, which reimbursed the Army for his salary and allowances. This arrangement gave Treloar less influence with the Army than he had enjoyed as head of the AWRS during World War I. General Thomas Blamey
, the commander of the AIF, subsequently redesignated the War Records Section the Military History and Information Section (MHIS) on the grounds that its original name had not adequately described the unit's role. In contrast to the DOI's propaganda activities, the MHIS focused on collecting records, images and items that would be useful to historians.
After assuming his new position, Treloar was sent to AIF Headquarters in the Middle East where Australian forces were engaged in the North African Campaign
. While en route to the Middle East he visited Malaya
. Conditions in North Africa proved more challenging than those in World War I, however, as the combat was fast-moving and the Australian troops felt less motivation to collect artefacts than those of the First AIF. Treloar was supported by a small staff, but fell out with his second in command who questioned both how he administered the unit and his personal efficiency. He also lacked a patron in the AIF and was handicapped by his relatively junior rank. Due to his absence from the Memorial, Treloar had only limited input into the design of its galleries and he was unable to attend its official opening in November 1941.
Following the outbreak of the Pacific War
in December 1941, most elements of the AIF were returned to Australia. While MHIS teams accompanied the 6th and 7th Divisions when they departed the Middle East in early 1942, Treloar remained in Egypt until May that year as he was initially unable to secure space on board ships for the Section's extensive collections. He eventually reached Australia in mid-1942 and was based in Melbourne for the remainder of the war. At the time, the front line of the Pacific War was in the islands just to the north of Australia. As Treloar argued in a letter to Blamey, Australia had the "opportunity and responsibility to provide the world with the most nearly complete and authoritative 'source' record" of the fighting. Blamey accepted this view, and in July 1942, the MHIS was renamed the Military History Section (MHS) in recognition of its emphasis on military history rather than propaganda. On 26 June 1942 Treloar received a Mention in Despatches for his service in October 1941.
The MHS continued the MHIS' role of facilitating the production of high-quality paper records and photographs of the war and collecting the resulting documents and images. The section had two field teams in April 1943 (one in Australia and the other in New Guinea
), and was expanded to nine teams by the end of 1944. Treloar also focused on the official war artist program, and succeeded in fostering a high-quality collection from a range of artistic styles. He placed a relatively low emphasis on collecting artefacts, however, and did not visit New Guinea even though it was the main Australian battlefield for most of the Pacific War. This concerned Bean, who wrote an unanswered letter to Treloar in July 1943 offering to help organise the collection of more items. In August 1943 Treloar's son Ian was reported missing while serving as a Royal Australian Air Force
warrant officer
attached to the Royal Air Force
. It was determined after the war that he had been killed in action. Treloar's other son, Alan, served in the Second AIF and won a Rhodes Scholarship
after the war.
By early 1944 Treloar was overworked and unhappy to be in Melbourne instead of at the Memorial. He was also uncomfortable with the way in which Bean and the AWM's acting director Arthur Bazley were running the Memorial in his absence, and sought to intervene in its management. This degree of intervention frustrated Bazley, and led to increasing conflict between the two men who had worked together since 1917. Their relationship worsened in 1945, and the Memorial's board was eventually forced to make a ruling on what Bazley and Treloar's responsibilities were. In 1946, Bazley left the Memorial to take a job in the Department of Immigration due to continuing tensions with Treloar.
One of Treloar's duties throughout much of the war was to compile and edit service annual books, which were compilations of articles written by military personnel and published by the AWM. He first proposed this in mid-1941 as an equivalent of The Anzac Book, which was a collection of anecdotes written by Australian soldiers during the Gallipoli Campaign. The first of these books, entitled Active Service, was printed during late 1941 and early 1942 and eventually sold 138,208 copies. Seventeen service annual books were produced during and after the war, with combined sales of 1,907,446 copies. These books were sold at a profit and earned the Memorial large amounts of money. Treloar's editorial role came on top of his full-time duties as head of the MHS and was one of the main causes of his exhaustion and anxiety in the final years of the war.
. While Treloar was a strict teotaller
and non-smoker, he occasionally shared wine and cigarettes with Dargie.
The main challenges for the Memorial in the post-war years were integrating the World War II collections with those from World War I and securing funding to expand its building. Treloar did not seek to increase the Memorial's holdings of World War II artefacts beyond supporting the completion of works commissioned from the official war artists. As a result, the Memorial's collection of World War II memorabilia was inferior to that assembled during and after World War I, and many of its best-known items such as the bomber G for George
were acquired as donations from the Government rather than through Treloar's efforts. It was not until October 1948 that the Government agreed to fund an expansion of the AWM after lobbying by Treloar and the Memorial's board.
Treloar experienced difficulties managing the Memorial and its staff in the years after World War II. While the AWM had few difficulties recruiting staff, it struggled to retain them due to housing shortages in Canberra and the way in which the Memorial was run. Treloar's working style contributed to these problems; although he was personally friendly and took an interest in the wellbeing of his employees, he did not delegate tasks and it was difficult for AWM staff to meet with him in person to discuss their responsibilities. This made it difficult for staff to complete urgent tasks, and contributed to delays in key projects such as the construction of the Memorial's Hall of Memory. Tom Hungerford
, who worked for the AWM between 1948 and 1949, wrote in his memoirs that Treloar was "most dedicated, most incredibly hard-working, most unfailingly kind and most ineffectual". Treloar increasingly obsessed over relatively minor details and gained a reputation for indecisiveness.
Treloar's work patterns took a toll on his health, and the deterioration in his performance after 1946 was possibly the result of exhaustion. Despite this, the Memorial's board did not intervene in the institution's management and allowed Treloar to remain in his position. In January 1952, Dawn found him ill in bed after noticing that he had not signed the attendance book. Treloar was subsequently admitted to the Canberra Community Hospital
where he died on 28 January as a result of an intestinal haemorrhage. His funeral was held two days later at Reid Methodist Church in Canberra, and he was subsequently buried in the returned soldiers section of Woden Cemetery
.
Treloar's death left the AWM in a state of crisis. Due to his close control over the Memorial, none of its staff knew what his plans had been and it was unclear how to continue key tasks such as completing the Roll of Honour, classifying and displaying items collected during World War II and managing the Memorial's finances. In addition, two fifths of the AWM's staff positions were vacant as Treloar had chosen to delay filling these vacancies. Jim McGrath, who had been the Memorial's Assistant Director (Administration) since May 1951, became acting director when Treloar was hospitalised and was confirmed in this position on 15 May 1952; Bazley had also applied for this job but lost to McGrath despite having Bean's support. Under the direction of Bean, who had been appointed the Chairman of the Memorial's Board in June 1951, McGrath established a committee to develop strategies for both completing and further developing the Memorial. Bean also personally reviewed the Memorial's collection of World War I artefacts during 1952 and 1953, and found that the register of these items was inadequate and it was not possible to locate many of them. He attributed this to the movement of the collection between Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra and the changes of directorship during periods in which Treloar was absent.
, was subsequently named in Treloar's honour and a commemorative plaque placed outside the AWM's archival research centre until 1985. In 1956 the street behind the Memorial's main building was named Treloar Crescent. In addition, the AWM named a grant it provided to researchers the 'John Treloar Grant'.
Treloar continues to be regarded as an important figure in Australian military history. The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History states that "there is little doubt that the Australian War Memorial would have foundered had it not been for Treloar's tireless and selfless labours, which almost certainly shortened his life" and that he was "Australia's first great museum professional". The collection of World War I records he organised is still used by historians and researchers, and is labelled an "archival record of remarkable detail and accessibility" in his Australian Dictionary of Biography
entry. In 1993 Alan Treloar published the diary his father had kept during World War I.
Archivist
An archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media...
and the second director of the Australian War Memorial
Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of all its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in the wars of the Commonwealth of Australia...
(AWM). During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he served in several staff roles and later headed the First Australian Imperial Force's
First Australian Imperial Force
The First Australian Imperial Force was the main expeditionary force of the Australian Army during World War I. It was formed from 15 August 1914, following Britain's declaration of war on Germany. Generally known at the time as the AIF, it is today referred to as the 1st AIF to distinguish from...
(AIF) record-keeping unit. From 1920 Treloar played an important role in establishing the AWM as its director. He headed an Australian Government department during the first years of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and spent the remainder of the war in charge of the Australian military's
Australian Defence Force
The Australian Defence Force is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy , Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force and a number of 'tri-service' units...
history section. Treloar returned to the AWM in 1946, and continued as its director until his death.
Treloar's career was focussed on the Australian military and its history. Prior to World War I he worked as a clerk in the Department of Defence
Department of Defence (Australia)
The Australian Department of Defence is a Federal Government Department. It forms part of the Australian Defence Organisation along with the Australian Defence Force . The Defence mission is to defend Australia and its national interests...
and, after volunteering for the AIF in 1914, formed part of the Australian Army
Australian Army
The Australian Army is Australia's military land force. It is part of the Australian Defence Force along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. While the Chief of Defence commands the Australian Defence Force , the Army is commanded by the Chief of Army...
officer Brudenell White's
Brudenell White
General Sir Cyril Brudenell Bingham White KCB, KCMG, KCVO, DSO was a senior officer in the Australian Army, who served as Chief of the General Staff from 1920 to 1923 and again from March to August 1940, when he was killed in the Canberra air disaster.-Early Life and career:White was born in St...
staff for most of the war's first years. He was appointed commander of the Australian War Records Section
Australian War Records Section
The Australian War Records Section was an Australian military unit of World War I responsible for collecting and preserving records and artifacts relating to Australia's experiences in the war. The section was formed on 16 May 1917 under the command of Captain John Treloar and eventually grew to a...
(AWRS) in 1917. In this position, he improved the AIF's records and collected a large number of artefacts for later display in Australia. Treloar was appointed the director of what eventually became the AWM in 1920, and was a key figure in establishing the Memorial and raising funds for its permanent building in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
. He left the AWM at the outbreak of World War II to lead the Australian Government's Department of Information
Department of Information (Australia)
The Department of Information was an Australian Government department formed during World War II. The Department was established in September 1939 under the leadership of John Treloar, the director of the Australian War Memorial, who remained in this role until early 1941...
, but was effectively sidelined for much of 1940. In early 1941 he was appointed to command the Australian military's Military History and Information Section with similar responsibilities to those he had held during World War I. He attempted to intervene in the management of the AWM during his absence, however, to the increasing frustration of its acting director. Treloar worked intensely in all his roles and suffered periods of ill-health as a result. Following the war, he returned to the Memorial in 1946 but his performance deteriorated over time, possibly due to exhaustion. He died in January 1952.
Treloar continues to be regarded as an important figure in Australian military history
Military history
Military history is a humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, their cultures, economies and changing intra and international relationships....
. His principal achievements are seen as gathering and classifying Australia's records of the world wars and successfully establishing the AWM. The street behind the Memorial and its main storage annex were named in Treloar's honour following his death.
World War I
John Treloar was born in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
on 10 December 1894. His father was a sales representative for Carlton & United Breweries
Carlton & United Breweries
Carlton & United Breweries is an Australian brewing company based in Abbotsford, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. In 1983 it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Elders IXL and CUB was delisted. In 1990, Elders IXL renamed to the Foster's Group, and in July 2004, CUB changed its name to Carlton and...
and his mother was a strict Methodist. Treloar was educated at Albert Park State School and became a trained Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
teacher. He was not able to attend university, but sought self-education in Melbourne's museums and libraries. Treloar also participated in his school's cadet unit
Australian Army Cadets
The Australian Army Cadets is a youth organisation that is involved with progressive training of youths in military and adventurous activities. The programme has more than 19,000 Army Cadets between the ages of 12½ and 19 based in 236 units around Australia...
, and believed that the military offered a means to follow his ambition for a career in a field other than small business. He was also a capable footballer, cricket player and athlete and was invited to train with the South Melbourne Football Club
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
. He took his father's advice to wait until he was 21 before playing senior games, however, and instead took a job with the Department of Defence after he left school in 1911. In this position he worked as a clerk for Brudenell White
Brudenell White
General Sir Cyril Brudenell Bingham White KCB, KCMG, KCVO, DSO was a senior officer in the Australian Army, who served as Chief of the General Staff from 1920 to 1923 and again from March to August 1940, when he was killed in the Canberra air disaster.-Early Life and career:White was born in St...
, who was later a leading Australian staff officer of World War I and the commander of the Australian Army during the early months of World War II.
On 16 August 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Treloar enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force
First Australian Imperial Force
The First Australian Imperial Force was the main expeditionary force of the Australian Army during World War I. It was formed from 15 August 1914, following Britain's declaration of war on Germany. Generally known at the time as the AIF, it is today referred to as the 1st AIF to distinguish from...
(AIF) and became a staff sergeant working for White in the headquarters of the 1st Division
1st Division (Australia)
The 1st Division is the main formation of the Australian Army and contains the majority of the army's regular forces. Its headquarters is in Enoggera, a suburb of Brisbane...
. He landed at Anzac Cove
Landing at Anzac Cove
The landing at Anzac Cove was part of the amphibious invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula by Australian and New Zealand forces on 25 April 1915. The landing, north of Gaba Tepe on the Aegean coast of the Peninsula, was made by soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and was the first...
with the rest of the 1st Division's Headquarters during the morning of 25 April 1915, and subsequently participated in the Gallipoli Campaign. Treloar's duties were mainly clerical, and included typing reports, orders and dispatches from senior officers. He frequently worked from 7 am to midnight, and this took a toll on his health. He contracted typhoid in late August, and was evacuated to Egypt on 4 September. Treloar came close to dying from this disease, and was returned to Australia to recuperate. He arrived in Melbourne on 4 December 1915. During his convalescence, Treloar resumed a pre-war friendship with Clarissa Aldridge and the couple became engaged.
When he recovered his health, Treloar returned to the military. An attempt to rejoin Brudenell White's staff was unsuccessful, and he instead was posted to the Australian Flying Corps
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
(AFC) with the rank of lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
. In February 1916, Treloar was assigned to No. 1 Squadron AFC
No. 1 Squadron RAAF
No. 1 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force squadron based at RAAF Amberley. The squadron is currently being re-equipped with F/A-18F Super Hornet multi-role fighters.-World War I:...
in Egypt and served as its equipment officer until July 1916, when he was transferred to France to become White's confidential clerk in the headquarters of I Anzac Corps
I Anzac Corps
The I ANZAC Corps was a combined Australian and New Zealand army corps that served during World War I.It was formed in Egypt in February 1916 as part of the reorganisation and expansion of the Australian Imperial Force and the New Zealand Expeditionary Force following the evacuation of Gallipoli...
. At the time of the Battle of Pozières
Battle of Pozières
The Battle of Pozières was a two week struggle for the French village of Pozières and the ridge on which it stands, during the middle stages of the 1916 Battle of the Somme. Though British divisions were involved in most phases of the fighting, Pozières is primarily remembered as an Australian battle...
in late July Treloar was in charge of the corps headquarters' Central Registry, which was responsible for communications within the headquarters as well as distributing orders to its subordinate units. During his staff roles Treloar gained a good understanding of military record-keeping. In May 1917, he was selected by White to command the newly established Australian War Records Section (AWRS), and was promoted to the rank of captain. At the time he knew nothing of the Section's role, and was unable to find any information about it.
Treloar assumed command of the AWRS on 16 May 1917. At this time the Section comprised four enlisted soldiers and occupied two rooms in the British Public Record Office's
Public Record Office
The Public Record Office of the United Kingdom is one of the three organisations that make up the National Archives...
(PRO) building in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Established upon the urging of the official Australian war correspondent Charles Bean
Charles Bean
Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean , usually identified as C.E.W. Bean, was an Australian schoolmaster, judge's associate, barrister journalist, war correspondent and historian....
, the unit was responsible for gathering records to serve as source material for the official histories
Official history
An official history is a work of history which is sponsored, authorised, or endorsed by its subject. The term is most commonly used for histories which are produced at a government's behest....
that were to be written after the war. At this stage Australia did not have a national archive
Archive
An archive is a collection of historical records, or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of an organization...
or public records office, and the AWRS was the first organisation set up to preserve any Commonwealth Government records.
Treloar's first challenge was to improve the quality of the war diaries
War diary
A war diary is a regularly updated official record kept by military units of their activities during wartime. The purpose of these diaries is to both record information which can later be used by the military to improve its training and tactics as well as to generate a detailed record of units'...
kept by AIF units. These diaries were meant to be maintained by each element of the AIF as a record of its activities for later use by historians, but at the time most units recorded few details. To this end, Treloar met with many of the officers responsible for units' war diaries and frequently provided written advice and feedback on the quality of the records submitted to the Section; these methods had previously been used by the Canadian military
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
. Treloar also sought to motivate relevant personnel by demonstrating that the diaries were valued and would be important in ensuring that their unit received recognition for its achievements after the war. In August 1917 the AWRS expanded its activities to include collecting artefacts from the French battlefields. Its tasks increased further in September when it took over responsibility for supervising the official war artists
Australian official war artists
Australian official war artists are those who have been expressly employed by either the Australian War Memorial or the Army Military History Section...
as well as producing and keeping records of non-official publications such as regimental magazines. Individual soldiers were encouraged to contribute artefacts and records, and the AWRS provided museum label
Museum label
A museum label or caption is a label describing an object exhibited in a museum, or one introducing a room or area, or the whole museum.-Introduction labels:...
s to combat units to encourage them to record the significance and origins of items they submitted. The AWRS established field offices in France and Egypt, and reached a strength of about 600 soldiers and civilians in November 1918. From November 1917 until August 1918 the war correspondent Henry Gullett
Henry Gullett
Sir Henry Somer Gullett KCMG was an Australian Cabinet Minister and member of the House of RepresentativesGullett was born at Toolamba West, Victoria and educated at state schools, but left school at twelve on the death of his father. He began writing for newspapers...
commanded the AWRS subsection in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
; in this role he reported directly to Treloar. As a result of the AWRS' expansion, in March 1918 its headquarters moved from the PRO building to a larger office on Horseferry Road
Horseferry Road
Horseferry Road is a street in the City of Westminster in central London, England, running between Millbank and Greycoat Place. It is perhaps best known as the site of City of Westminster Magistrates' Court...
opposite the main offices of the AIF Administrative Headquarters.
As commander of the AWRS, Treloar worked enthusiastically and at times had to be ordered to take holidays. He told Bean that he was motivated "to do something really worthwhile for Australia" by bringing together the records covering Australia's role in the war. He actively pursued records and artefacts covering a wide range of the AIF's activities. While Bean was impressed by Treloar's achievements, he believed that the young man was pushing himself too hard and was in danger of a breakdown. Although they shared accommodations for a period, the two men were not close. Treloar was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on 3 June 1918 for "services in connection with the war" and was promoted to major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
in December 1918. While this promotion recognised his achievements as commander of the AWRS, it was mainly intended to improve his status when he attended meetings of the War Trophies Commission; the British representative on this commission was a major general
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
. Treloar arranged for Clarissa Aldridge to travel to Britain in 1918, and they were married in London on 5 November. The couple eventually had two daughters and two sons.
Following the war, Treloar continued to organise the records the AWRS had collected. In the months after the war the Section was assigned a large number of soldiers to assist with this task. The AWRS also continued to gather artefacts, and by February 1919 it had a collection of over 25,000 items; Treloar regarded this as "a good collection" but still not sufficient. He sought to collect records and memorabilia relevant to all aspects of Australia's experience in World War I, including material concerning the worst aspects of the Australian military. In doing so, Treloar deliberately did not make judgments on the historical value of the records and items submitted to the AWRS as he believed that this task should be left to others. On 3 June 1919 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), for "valuable services rendered in connexion with the war". Treloar arrived back in Australia on 18 July 1919.
The large quantity of artefacts and records which the AWRS had gathered were also returned to Australia in 1919, though work on organising them into an archive was not completed until 1932. The Australian War Museum was formed in 1919 on the basis of the Section's collection, and Treloar joined the Museum at some stage during the year. Henry Gullett was appointed the War Museum's first director after Bean turned down the position so that he could focus on editing and writing the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. Bean, Gullet and Treloar were subsequently the key figures in the establishment of the AWM.
Establishing the War Memorial
Treloar was appointed the acting director of the Australian War Museum in 1920 after Gullett resigned from the position and became head of the Australian Immigration Bureau. Gullet later wrote the official history of Australia's involvement in the Sinai and Palestine CampaignSinai and Palestine Campaign
The Sinai and Palestine Campaigns took place in the Middle Eastern Theatre of World War I. A series of battles were fought between British Empire, German Empire and Ottoman Empire forces from 26 January 1915 to 31 October 1918, when the Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Ottoman Empire and...
. Treloar was 26 years of age at the time he became director of the Museum and was responsible for the difficult task of establishing the institution. Between 1920 and 1922 he personally undertook much of the work associated with developing the Museum's first major exhibition, which opened in Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building
Royal Exhibition Building
The Royal Exhibition Building is a World Heritage Site-listed building in Melbourne, Australia, completed in 1880. It is located at 9 Nicholson Street in the Carlton Gardens, flanked by Victoria, Nicholson, Carlton and Rathdowne Streets, at the north-eastern edge of the central business district...
on Anzac Day
ANZAC Day
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all...
1922. During this period the staff of the Australian War Museum were also responsible for providing administrative support for a program to distribute captured German equipment as war trophies
War trophy
In ancient Greece and Rome, military victories were commemorated with a display of captured arms and standards. A trophy was originally a war memorial assembled from such items on a battlefield. The Roman triumph also displayed these items as well as cultural objects, which later came to be...
to the Australian states. Treloar was a member of the committee overseeing this effort, and the associated administrative load came close to overwhelming him.
Treloar continued to expand the Australian War Museum's collections during the 1920s. For instance, in 1921 he wrote to all the Australian Victoria Cross recipients of World War I or their families to ask that they donate their wartime diaries or other personal items. The Museum also actively sought the wartime diaries and letters written by other members of the AIF; Treloar hoped that these records would allow a psychological study to be conducted on the men who had joined the AIF. Taking up an idea of Bean's, Treloar also oversaw the development of several diorama
Diorama
The word diorama can either refer to a nineteenth century mobile theatre device, or, in modern usage, a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum...
s depicting key Australian battles of the war and engaged professional artists to make the models. Several of the dioramas produced in the 1920s remain on display in the AWM and are among its most popular exhibits. Treloar also oversaw the completion of the artworks which had been commissioned from the official war artists during World War I and, in collaboration with Bean, ordered additional works.
During its early years the AWM existed in a parlous state, and Treloar raised funds and advocated construction of a permanent building to house its records and collection of artefacts. Treloar and Bean convinced the Museum's governing committee that it needed to raise funds so that the Museum was not entirely dependent on Government funding for its permanent building. To this end, Treloar established a sales section in the Museum in 1921 and recruited salesmen to sell books, reproductions of artworks and photographs as well as surplus items from the collection such as German helmet
Helmet
A helmet is a form of protective gear worn on the head to protect it from injuries.Ceremonial or symbolic helmets without protective function are sometimes used. The oldest known use of helmets was by Assyrian soldiers in 900BC, who wore thick leather or bronze helmets to protect the head from...
s and rifle cartridges
Cartridge (firearms)
A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...
. The Government was slow to commit to building a permanent home for the Museum's collection, however, and Treloar considered resigning in July 1922 to take up a position in the Department of Immigration. He ultimately decided against doing so, however. In mid-1923 he was temporarily released from the Museum and travelled to London as the secretary of Australia's contribution to the British Empire Exhibition
British Empire Exhibition
The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley, Middlesex in 1924 and 1925.-History:It was opened by King George V on St George's Day, 23 April 1924. The British Empire contained 58 countries at that time, and only Gambia and Gibraltar did not take part...
. He returned to Australia in early 1925. During Treloar's absence the Museum moved to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, where its collection was housed in the Sydney Exhibition Building from April 1925. The institution was renamed the Australian War Memorial during this year, and following the passage of the Australian War Memorial Act by the Parliament of Australia
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...
in September was formally established as the national memorial to the Australians killed during World War I. This act specified that the Memorial would be overseen by a twelve person Board of Management whose members were appointed by the Governor General of Australia. Treolar reported to this board, but it generally allowed him to run the Memorial as he saw fit. Treloar travelled to London again in 1927 to work on the British Empire Exhibition scheduled for that year, but returned after a few months when it was cancelled. On 8 December 1927 Treloar and the rest of the War Memorial's staff were appointed permanently to their positions; prior to this date they had been employed under temporary arrangements and Treloar had technically been a member of the Army's headquarters. Treloar took a brief leave of absence in 1931 to help organise the Empire Exhibition that was planned for Sydney.
The construction of a permanent building for the Memorial was delayed by the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. In January 1924 the Commonwealth Government's Cabinet
Cabinet of Australia
The Cabinet of Australia is the council of senior ministers of the Crown, responsible to parliament. The Cabinet is appointed by the Governor-General, on the advice of the Prime Minister the Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, and serves at the former's pleasure. The strictly private...
approved a proposal to construct the War Memorial at the foot of Mount Ainslie
Mount Ainslie (Australian Capital Territory)
Mount Ainslie or Mount Ainslie-Majura is a part of Canberra Nature Park. It borders on the inner suburbs of Campbell, Ainslie and Hackett...
in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
. An architectural competition was subsequently held, and Treloar was responsible for selecting the final designs to be considered after the judging panel had reduced the number of entries from 69 to 29. None of these designs met all the necessary criteria, but two of the architects responsible for highly placed designs agreed to collaborate to produce a final design. Plans for the Memorial building were approved by the Commonwealth Parliament
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...
in 1928, but funds for construction work were not available due to the impact of the Great Depression. Work finally began on the building in 1933, and it was completed in 1941. Until 1935, Treloar and the Memorial's administrative staff were located in Melbourne while the collection was split between Sydney and Melbourne. In that year, Treloar, along with 24 other Memorial staff, moved into the uncompleted building in Canberra and the Memorial in Sydney was closed to enable the collection to be relocated.
Treloar continued to seek commercial opportunities to raise funds for the Memorial during the 1920s and 1930s. As well as selling guidebooks, reproductions of artworks and surplus items, the Memorial raised substantial amounts of money from placing an admission fee on Will Longstaff's
Will Longstaff
Captain William Frederick Longstaff was an Australian painter and war artist best known for his works commemorating those who died in the First World War.-Birth and education:...
painting Menin Gate at Midnight
Menin Gate at Midnight
Menin Gate at Midnight is a 1927 painting by Australian artist Will Longstaff. The painting depicts a host of ghostly soldiers marching across a field in front of the Menin Gate war memorial...
when it went on display in 1929. This painting proved so popular that Treloar engaged ex-servicemen to sell reproductions of it door to door. In 1931 Treloar ensured that the Memorial took over responsibility for the publication and distribution of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 when the project suffered financial difficulties due to poor sales. As sales continued to be slow, Treloar actively promoted the series to RSL
Returned and Services League of Australia
The Returned and Services League of Australia is a support organisation for men and women who have served or are serving in the Australian Defence Force ....
branches and members of the Australian Public Service
Australian Public Service
The Australian Public Service is the Australian federal civil service, the group of people employed by federal departments, agencies and courts under the Government of Australia, to administer the working of the public administration of the Commonwealth of Australia...
; a scheme he developed in which public servants purchased the books through regular pay deductions proved particularly successful. Treloar also engaged more salesmen to sell the series to households. These efforts led to a large increase in sales, and Bean remarked that not only had Treloar been more successful in selling the books than Angus & Robertson
Angus & Robertson
Angus & Robertson is a bookstore chain in Australia. Its first bookstore was opened in 110½ Market Street, Sydney by Scotsman David Angus in 1884; it sold second-hand books. In 1886, he went into partnership with fellow Scot, George Robertson with whom he had worked earlier.- Bookselling history...
, its original publisher, but that "he would do better than [the department store] David Jones
David Jones Limited
David Jones Limited , colloquially known as DJs, is a high-end Australian department store chain.David Jones was founded in 1838 by David Jones, a Welsh immigrant, and is claimed to be the oldest continuously operating department store in the world still trading under its original name. It...
selling shirts". This sales work was in addition to Treloar's regular duties as the Memorial's director, and he received an honorarium
Honorarium
An honorarium is an ex gratia payment made to a person for their services in a volunteer capacity or for services for which fees are not traditionally required. This is used by groups such as schools or sporting clubs to pay coaches for their costs...
for it.
Treloar would typically work for six days each week, and normally stayed until late at night. In accordance with his Methodist beliefs, he did not work on Sundays. He continued to expand the Memorial's collections by encouraging individuals to donate letters and diaries to supplement the official records. Treloar also placed an emphasis on safeguarding the collection; in 1933 he personally investigated the theft of the German cruiser Emdens bell from the Memorial in Sydney after the New South Wales Police broke off its investigation. With Treloar's assistance the bell was recovered later that year. Despite his enthusiasm, Treloar became frustrated by the repeated delays in opening the Memorial during the 1930s and believed that it would not be as successful as he had hoped. As a result, he began actively looking for a new career at the end of 1938, starting by applying to be the secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club
Melbourne Cricket Club
The Melbourne Cricket Club is a sporting club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is regarded as the oldest sporting club in Australia....
.
World War II
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II Treloar wrote to the members of the AWM's board to with proposals for how the Memorial should respond to another major war. This letter suggested that if hostilities occurred, the Memorial should suspend most of its activities and reorient its focus to become a memorial to all the wars in which Australia had taken part rather than just World War I. He further proposed that the Memorial building be used as a store and for government offices during the war, and that its staff establish a war records section similar to the AWRS. These proposals "ran counter to all that had been planned in the preceding years" and were rejected by the AWM board in October 1939. The board did decide, however, to offer the Department of Defence assistance with collecting records and artefacts. Accordingly, work continued on the Memorial throughout World War II, though in February 1941 the board decided to extend its scope to include the new war.Treloar left his position at the Memorial for the duration of World War II. In September 1939 Treloar's close friend Henry Gullett, who at the time was the Minister for Information, appointed him the inaugural secretary
Departmental Secretary
A departmental secretary is the head of an Australian Commonwealth or state government department especially in Victoria...
of the Department of Information (DOI). The DOI was the first of 17 new Australian Government departments to be established during the war, and was responsible for both censorship and disseminating government propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
. Treloar ran the department in line with traditional Australian Public Service procedures; this included implementing tight internal controls over the DOI's procedures and information dissemination functions as well as taking steps to prevent its work from being politicised. He remained the departmental secretary after Gullett was moved to a different ministry in March 1940, but lost status when Keith Murdoch
Keith Murdoch
Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch was an Australian journalist and the father of Rupert Murdoch, the CEO and Chairman of News Corp.-Life and career:Murdoch was born in Melbourne in 1885, the son of Annie and the Rev...
was appointed to the new position of Director-General of Information in June that year. Murdoch's appointment was part of a government campaign to generate public support for increased armaments production following the fall of France
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
, and he placed a stronger emphasis on generating propaganda. Treloar was troubled by the use of the DOI's photographers to produce publicity photographs instead of images with historical value. Gullet was killed in the Canberra air disaster on 13 August 1940. Treloar regained full control of the DOI in December that year when Murdoch resigned, though its photographers were still mainly tasked with taking publicity photos.
At some point in 1940 or early 1941, Treloar requested that he be appointed to command the War Records Section, which formed part of the Second Australian Imperial Force's
Second Australian Imperial Force
The Second Australian Imperial Force was the name given to the volunteer personnel of the Australian Army in World War II. Under the Defence Act , neither the part-time Militia nor the full-time Permanent Military Force could serve outside Australia or its territories unless they volunteered to...
administrative headquarters. The Cabinet agreed to this during February 1941. Treloar's responsibilities in this role were to coordinate and control the collection of material to be included in the AWM as well as to supervise the official war artists and photographers; these duties were similar to those he and Bean had undertaken during World War I. While Treloar was appointed to the rank of lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
, he primarily worked for the AWM, which reimbursed the Army for his salary and allowances. This arrangement gave Treloar less influence with the Army than he had enjoyed as head of the AWRS during World War I. General Thomas Blamey
Thomas Blamey
Field Marshal Sir Thomas Albert Blamey GBE, KCB, CMG, DSO, ED was an Australian general of the First and Second World Wars, and the only Australian to date to attain the rank of field marshal....
, the commander of the AIF, subsequently redesignated the War Records Section the Military History and Information Section (MHIS) on the grounds that its original name had not adequately described the unit's role. In contrast to the DOI's propaganda activities, the MHIS focused on collecting records, images and items that would be useful to historians.
After assuming his new position, Treloar was sent to AIF Headquarters in the Middle East where Australian forces were engaged in the North African Campaign
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
. While en route to the Middle East he visited Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
. Conditions in North Africa proved more challenging than those in World War I, however, as the combat was fast-moving and the Australian troops felt less motivation to collect artefacts than those of the First AIF. Treloar was supported by a small staff, but fell out with his second in command who questioned both how he administered the unit and his personal efficiency. He also lacked a patron in the AIF and was handicapped by his relatively junior rank. Due to his absence from the Memorial, Treloar had only limited input into the design of its galleries and he was unable to attend its official opening in November 1941.
Following the outbreak of the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
in December 1941, most elements of the AIF were returned to Australia. While MHIS teams accompanied the 6th and 7th Divisions when they departed the Middle East in early 1942, Treloar remained in Egypt until May that year as he was initially unable to secure space on board ships for the Section's extensive collections. He eventually reached Australia in mid-1942 and was based in Melbourne for the remainder of the war. At the time, the front line of the Pacific War was in the islands just to the north of Australia. As Treloar argued in a letter to Blamey, Australia had the "opportunity and responsibility to provide the world with the most nearly complete and authoritative 'source' record" of the fighting. Blamey accepted this view, and in July 1942, the MHIS was renamed the Military History Section (MHS) in recognition of its emphasis on military history rather than propaganda. On 26 June 1942 Treloar received a Mention in Despatches for his service in October 1941.
The MHS continued the MHIS' role of facilitating the production of high-quality paper records and photographs of the war and collecting the resulting documents and images. The section had two field teams in April 1943 (one in Australia and the other in New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
), and was expanded to nine teams by the end of 1944. Treloar also focused on the official war artist program, and succeeded in fostering a high-quality collection from a range of artistic styles. He placed a relatively low emphasis on collecting artefacts, however, and did not visit New Guinea even though it was the main Australian battlefield for most of the Pacific War. This concerned Bean, who wrote an unanswered letter to Treloar in July 1943 offering to help organise the collection of more items. In August 1943 Treloar's son Ian was reported missing while serving as a Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
warrant officer
Warrant Officer
A warrant officer is an officer in a military organization who is designated an officer by a warrant, as distinguished from a commissioned officer who is designated an officer by a commission, or from non-commissioned officer who is designated an officer by virtue of seniority.The rank was first...
attached to the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
. It was determined after the war that he had been killed in action. Treloar's other son, Alan, served in the Second AIF and won a Rhodes Scholarship
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
after the war.
By early 1944 Treloar was overworked and unhappy to be in Melbourne instead of at the Memorial. He was also uncomfortable with the way in which Bean and the AWM's acting director Arthur Bazley were running the Memorial in his absence, and sought to intervene in its management. This degree of intervention frustrated Bazley, and led to increasing conflict between the two men who had worked together since 1917. Their relationship worsened in 1945, and the Memorial's board was eventually forced to make a ruling on what Bazley and Treloar's responsibilities were. In 1946, Bazley left the Memorial to take a job in the Department of Immigration due to continuing tensions with Treloar.
One of Treloar's duties throughout much of the war was to compile and edit service annual books, which were compilations of articles written by military personnel and published by the AWM. He first proposed this in mid-1941 as an equivalent of The Anzac Book, which was a collection of anecdotes written by Australian soldiers during the Gallipoli Campaign. The first of these books, entitled Active Service, was printed during late 1941 and early 1942 and eventually sold 138,208 copies. Seventeen service annual books were produced during and after the war, with combined sales of 1,907,446 copies. These books were sold at a profit and earned the Memorial large amounts of money. Treloar's editorial role came on top of his full-time duties as head of the MHS and was one of the main causes of his exhaustion and anxiety in the final years of the war.
Post-war years
Treloar returned to the AWM on 2 September 1946 and was formally discharged from the Army in 1947. At the time he believed he was suffering from bad health, but wanted to resume his work at the Memorial rather than enter hospital. While Clarissa Treloar remained in Melbourne, their daughter Dawn moved to Canberra and took up a position in the Memorial's library. Treloar continued to work long hours in the years after the war. He lived in a cubby hole next to his office and signed the attendance book while walking from bed to his desk. Bean later claimed that Treloar had personally managed all areas of the Memorial other than its library. While Dawn provided him with company, family members and AWM staff believed that Treloar was lonely and did not have a social life. His letters to the official artists engaged by the AWM were frequently relaxed, however, and he became friends with Leslie Bowles and William DargieWilliam Dargie
Sir William Alexander Dargie CBE was an Australian painter, known especially for his portrait paintings. He holds the record for the most Archibald Prize wins; eight. He was an official Australian War Artist during World War II.- Biography :William Dargie was born in Footscray, Victoria, the first...
. While Treloar was a strict teotaller
Teetotalism
Teetotalism refers to either the practice of or the promotion of complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages. A person who practices teetotalism is called a teetotaler or is simply said to be teetotal...
and non-smoker, he occasionally shared wine and cigarettes with Dargie.
The main challenges for the Memorial in the post-war years were integrating the World War II collections with those from World War I and securing funding to expand its building. Treloar did not seek to increase the Memorial's holdings of World War II artefacts beyond supporting the completion of works commissioned from the official war artists. As a result, the Memorial's collection of World War II memorabilia was inferior to that assembled during and after World War I, and many of its best-known items such as the bomber G for George
G for George
G for George is an Avro Lancaster Mk.I bomber, squadron code AR-G and serial number W4783, operated by No. 460 Squadron RAAF during World War II...
were acquired as donations from the Government rather than through Treloar's efforts. It was not until October 1948 that the Government agreed to fund an expansion of the AWM after lobbying by Treloar and the Memorial's board.
Treloar experienced difficulties managing the Memorial and its staff in the years after World War II. While the AWM had few difficulties recruiting staff, it struggled to retain them due to housing shortages in Canberra and the way in which the Memorial was run. Treloar's working style contributed to these problems; although he was personally friendly and took an interest in the wellbeing of his employees, he did not delegate tasks and it was difficult for AWM staff to meet with him in person to discuss their responsibilities. This made it difficult for staff to complete urgent tasks, and contributed to delays in key projects such as the construction of the Memorial's Hall of Memory. Tom Hungerford
Tom Hungerford
Thomas Arthur Guy Hungerford, AM , popularly known as T. A. G. Hungerford, was an Australian writer, noted for his World War II novel The Ridge and the River, and his short stories that chronicle growing up in South Perth, Western Australia during the Great Depression.-Early life:Hungerford was...
, who worked for the AWM between 1948 and 1949, wrote in his memoirs that Treloar was "most dedicated, most incredibly hard-working, most unfailingly kind and most ineffectual". Treloar increasingly obsessed over relatively minor details and gained a reputation for indecisiveness.
Treloar's work patterns took a toll on his health, and the deterioration in his performance after 1946 was possibly the result of exhaustion. Despite this, the Memorial's board did not intervene in the institution's management and allowed Treloar to remain in his position. In January 1952, Dawn found him ill in bed after noticing that he had not signed the attendance book. Treloar was subsequently admitted to the Canberra Community Hospital
Royal Canberra Hospital
Royal Canberra Hospital was the first hospital in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It opened in 1914 on the Acton Peninsula, as the Canberra Community Hospital. It grew to become the major hospital in Canberra before being closed in 1991 and later demolished in 1997.- Early Years 1912–1939 :In...
where he died on 28 January as a result of an intestinal haemorrhage. His funeral was held two days later at Reid Methodist Church in Canberra, and he was subsequently buried in the returned soldiers section of Woden Cemetery
Woden Cemetery
The Woden Cemetery is the main cemetery in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is located adjacent to the Woden Town Centre.The cemetery opened in 1936 as the Canberra General Cemetery. It closed for burials in 1979, but was re-opened in March 1999...
.
Treloar's death left the AWM in a state of crisis. Due to his close control over the Memorial, none of its staff knew what his plans had been and it was unclear how to continue key tasks such as completing the Roll of Honour, classifying and displaying items collected during World War II and managing the Memorial's finances. In addition, two fifths of the AWM's staff positions were vacant as Treloar had chosen to delay filling these vacancies. Jim McGrath, who had been the Memorial's Assistant Director (Administration) since May 1951, became acting director when Treloar was hospitalised and was confirmed in this position on 15 May 1952; Bazley had also applied for this job but lost to McGrath despite having Bean's support. Under the direction of Bean, who had been appointed the Chairman of the Memorial's Board in June 1951, McGrath established a committee to develop strategies for both completing and further developing the Memorial. Bean also personally reviewed the Memorial's collection of World War I artefacts during 1952 and 1953, and found that the register of these items was inadequate and it was not possible to locate many of them. He attributed this to the movement of the collection between Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra and the changes of directorship during periods in which Treloar was absent.
Legacy
Following his death, Treloar was praised for the personal sacrifices he had made to establish the AWM, as well as for the high quality of the Memorial. The Memorial's storage and display annex at Mitchell, Australian Capital TerritoryMitchell, Australian Capital Territory
Mitchell is a light-industrial estate of Canberra, Australia in the district of Gungahlin. Mitchell was named in honour of Major Sir Thomas Livingston Mitchell, an explorer of inland New South Wales and Surveyor-General of New South Wales. The streets in Mitchell are named after Australian...
, was subsequently named in Treloar's honour and a commemorative plaque placed outside the AWM's archival research centre until 1985. In 1956 the street behind the Memorial's main building was named Treloar Crescent. In addition, the AWM named a grant it provided to researchers the 'John Treloar Grant'.
Treloar continues to be regarded as an important figure in Australian military history. The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History states that "there is little doubt that the Australian War Memorial would have foundered had it not been for Treloar's tireless and selfless labours, which almost certainly shortened his life" and that he was "Australia's first great museum professional". The collection of World War I records he organised is still used by historians and researchers, and is labelled an "archival record of remarkable detail and accessibility" in his Australian Dictionary of Biography
Australian Dictionary of Biography
The Australian Dictionary of Biography is a national, co-operative enterprise, founded and maintained by the Australian National University to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's history....
entry. In 1993 Alan Treloar published the diary his father had kept during World War I.