Navy records used by A Jose (includes United Kingdom records)

At the request of C E W Bean in 1920, Arthur Wilberforce Jose (1863-1934) was appointed to write the naval volume for The Official History of Australia in the War 1914-1918. That volume, Volume IX, The Royal Australian Navy 1914-1918 was published in 1928. Jose was born and educated in England, recuperating in Australia following an illness at the age of 19. At the age of 22 he was appointed Assistant Master at All Saints College, Bathurst, NSW – he had met its Headmaster, Edwin Bean, previously. He wrote widely and went to South Africa as a war correspondent in 1899. He was appointed to the Australian Intelligence Corps in 1909 and promoted honorary Captain in 1911. He spent a year in London with The Times before an appointment to the Intelligence Branch of the Royal Australian Navy in 1915.

The bulk of the papers in this series, used in writing The Royal Australian Navy 1914-1918, were donated to the Australian War Memorial (AWM) by Jose and Bean. In 1926 the AWM received a donation from Mr A Licence providing lists of naval transports leaving Sydney for the front in the period 19 August 1914 to 17 November 1916, together with documents identifying transports returning to Sydney during the period of the war, and after. (See firstly item BUNDLE 23/26-27).

Some papers, held formerly by authorities in the United Kingdom, were transferred to the AWM in 1927 and now form part of the series.

Items 24/1, 24/2, 41/18, 55 and 58 have been transferred to AWM 39.

Contents

The main subjects covered by the series are:

· Incidents and reports from the following HMA ships Australia, Brisbane, Encounter, Fantome, Gunundaal, Brolga, Huan, Melbourne, Mourilyan, Parramatta, Pioneer, Protector, Psyche, Swan, Sydney, Tingira, Torrens and Una (also includes HMAT Ballarat) - (BUNDLES 1 to 18)

· Transportation of Australian troops (BUNDLE 23)

· Navies - British Stations (BUNDLE 26)

· Home Station 1914-1919 (BUNDLES 27 to 31)

· Transports and hospital ships (BUNDLE 39)

· Intelligence on Japanese and German naval action (various BUNDLES)

• AWM36 BUNDLE 2 - SS BALLARAT
• AWM36 BUNDLE 11 - HMAS PROTECTOR
• AWM36 BUNDLE 23 - Transportation of Australian [Anzac] troops
• AWM36 BUNDLE 26 - British Stations