Thesis abstract:

«p»During the First World War, Australian soldiers had an unprecedented opportunity to meet women whilst on service abroad. This resulted in a high number of wartime marriages - with a reported 5,626 men married outside Australia by the end of August 1918. Thousands more couples were married during the final months of the war or whilst the troops were awaiting repatriation home at the conclusion of hostilities. The vast majority of these war brides were British women who married Australian soldiers in the United Kingdom. However, there was also a smaller number of French and Belgian women who married Australian soldiers in Europe. Additionally, there were a few isolated cases of inter-cultural marriages which took place between Australian soldiers and women of various other nationalities in Egypt, including an Australian who married an Armenian woman in Cairo in April 1917. Many of these war brides settled in Australia, making use of assisted passage offered by the State Immigrations Bureaus in the early years of the war and then free passages offered by the Commonwealth Government offered from March 1918 onwards. The Australian press frequently dubbed the incoming war brides 'Mrs Anzac' though they were not always welcomed with open arms in their new communities, with particular vitriol directed at English brides, who were seen as stealing Australian men from Australian women. There were also a small number of Australian soldiers who chose to settle with their wives in Europe or Egypt. Additionally, several British and French war brides were left behind in the Northern Hemisphere when their husbands returned home for discharge. Despite the thousands of war brides and the diversity of experience, there has been a lack of scholarly work on this particular cohort of women. Consequently, my research seeks to bridge the gap in the literature by exploring the experiences of 'Mrs Anzac', with a key focus on gender relations and the manner in which these marriages interupted return and homecoming.«/p»