Nominations for the Margaret Medcalf Award 2021 have now closed and the judging panel are assessing works received.
To showcase the Margaret Medcalf Award, the State Records Office has developed a new series of podcasts with producer and RTRFM broadcaster Sarah Tout in which several previous winners of the Award are interviewed about their research.
In the first of these episodes, listen in as Sarah interviews Dr Leigh Straw who discusses her book After The War: Returned Soldiers and the Mental and Physical Scars of World War One.
Dr Straw was a joint winner of the Margaret Medcalf Award 2018, along with Dr Joanna Sassoon for her book Agents of Empire: How E.L. Mitchell's photographs shaped Australia.
The Margaret Medcalf Award recognises excellence in referencing and research in the use of State archives. The Award honours Ms Margaret Medcalf OAM, Western Australia’s second State Archivist (1971 to 1989), for her valuable contribution to the development of archives in Western Australia.
Note: In this interview, Dr Straw discusses the suffering experienced by returned soldiers after WWI which would now be understood as Post Traumatic Stress. If this recorded interview has raised anything for you please contact lifeline on 13 11 14. For help and support with domestic or family violence call 1800 RESPECT and help and support for Defence members, ex-serving members, veterans and their families is available 24/7 through Open Arms on 1800 011 046.
Image: War Studio Photograph of Andrew Straw (1916), courtesy of Dr Leigh Straw.
