ANU alumna’s personal history of wool and war

The story of a recent Master of Philosophy graduate’s research is an epic that spans three generations, two countries and two world wars. 

 

Jacqueline Dwyer’s thesis was on two topics that are deeply personal to her: the French-Australian wool trade and World War I. She has researched these subjects since the early 1980s, resulting in the book Flanders in Australia: a Personal History of Wool and War, published in 1998.

 

Her thesis was developed from this book, with her father’s wartime letters and diaries serving as primary sources. 

 

“Undertaking the thesis gave me the discipline and stimulation I needed to set these family papers into a more analytic context,” Jacqueline said.

 

“I was also aided by the university's facilities and a sympathetic and enlightening supervisor, Peter Brown.”

 

Working on the thesis marked Jacqueline’s return to university, having majored in English and History in Sydney in the 1940s. Along with her peers, she put her interests aside to contribute to the war effort.

 

Both thesis and book convey her family history, beginning with her grandfather, a French wool expert. 

 

“My grandfather Georges arrived in Melbourne in 1889 to set up a branch of an international wool trading firm which was based in the important textile region in the north of France,” Jacqueline explained.

 

This was when Australia’s economy ‘rode on the sheep’s back’. 

 

“Georges’ brother followed two years later and both founded large families who were educated in Australian schools, and grew up speaking French and English.”

 

Ten years later in Sydney, Georges became the founding president of the French-Australian Chamber of Commerce. Both brothers’ business affairs prospered until 1914 when the young men were conscripted into the French army and served on the Western Front. 

 

“In the last months of the war, my father became an interpreter with the Australian Army,” Jacqueline said. 

 

The letters he sent back to Australia and his Verdun diaries, which are now in the State Library of NSW, form the backbone of Jacqueline’s thesis.

 

After the war, Jacqueline’s father revived the family business. As a consequence, the Australian-born Jacqueline travelled to France by ship every other year with her family all her childhood – for voyages that would last six months each time. Going between the two countries, Jacqueline became fluent in French and English. 

 

“In recent years, I’ve become quite interested in French-Australian relations,” Jacqueline said.

 

“I’m very pleased that my book is considered in French diplomatic circles a useful background to the values shared by France and Australia.”

 

In 2015, Jacqueline was awarded the National Order of Merit by the French Government and described by the Consul-general as a Living Treasure of France in Australia. Since graduating from the ANU in December 2015, Jacqueline has been working on a revised edition to Flanders in Australia, aided by the research she conducted for her thesis. 

 

“I would very much like to see it translated into French one day,” Jacqueline added.