In Collie in 1929, a murder-suicide took place. The killer was
identified as Andrew Straw. Dressed in war uniform and a slouch hat, a
hauntingly familiar face stared out at me from the front page of Truth.
Andrew Straw bore a striking resemblance to my husband. I had unearthed
an unexpected family story. Of the 330,000 Australian men who enlisted
and served in World War I, close to 60,000 never returned home. As much
as it is important to commemorate the war dead, it is also imperative
that we remember the survivors as they moved into peacetime. Of the
32,000 Western Australian men who enlisted, 23,700 returned from the
war. These men tried to create a semblance of a civilian life following
the traumas of war. War receded from immediate view as these men
readjusted to civilian life, but its impacts endured. Many returned with
disabilities, mental health problems and a lowered sense of self-worth
that led some to take their own lives. This book charts the emergence of
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a diagnosable condition in an
Australian context. In this deeply personal account, historian and
writer Leigh Straw seeks a better understanding of what soldiers
experienced once the fighting stopped. After the War uses the personal
struggles of soldiers and their families to increase public
understanding of the legacies of World War I in Western Australia and
across the nation. The scars of war-mental and physical-can be lifelong
for soldiers who serve their country. This is a story of surviving life
after war. [Subject: Military History, History, PTSD, Psychology, WWI,
Australian Studies]
