A Soldier's Letter to his Mother, 1890

by Jim Statter

I knew I wouldn’t be a miner all my life.

When those four miners got killed it ended my days in the coal mine. It could have been me if cousin Tam hadn’t shoved me out of the way. Then him getting a lung full of gas. It finished him as a miner.

But it is a lot harder than I thought being a volunteer. A few of the men who enlisted with me have gone home. They found the discipline and route marches with heavy packs on their backs trekking  over muddy fields too hard to take. You fall asleep as soon as you get back to barracks.

by Kate Durie

Inspired by artefacts from the wreck of the steamship Birkenhead.

“Billy Drummond stood at the door, panting. His mouth was moving, but no words came out that I could hear. Then something came through my fog. ‘The Birkenhead’s gone down.’ I still didn’t follow. ‘Going to the Cape. With the Argylls the 91st Reserves. With your boy.’

by Pauline Wright

Inspired by the painting " The 93rd Sutherland Highlandars storming the walls of the Begum Kothi", 11th March 1858, by Orlando Norrie.

“The walls were high, too high. White smoke drifted down on their faces hiding the screaming turbaned hordes on top. He felt the ladder sag beneath the weight of scrambling bodies. Keep going; he had to keep going.