Janice Johnson

Camden Stories of Service in World War II Janice Johnson

This is a summary of the introduction written by Janice.




A local newspaper reflects the values and attitudes of the community at the time. During World War II, the Camden News revealed the Camden community's values. It conveyed the strong sense of community of those days in Camden when everyone knew everyone else or was related to everyone else. The newspaper was providing a service to its readers by sharing interesting information. It was also contributing to community identity and a sense of place.




Janice Johnson has gathered the paper's articles about the Camden servicemen and women engaged in the war. It is possible to see the patriotic enthusiasm as the war started and the proud farewells to the young men going off to war. Later there are more sombre accounts of prisoners of war, injuries, and deaths. This book tells us our history, but this is through the participants' writings and opinions at the time.




The strong patriotism of the Camden News editor, William Sidman, guided him to select and give preference to some stories and suppress others. Occasionally he inserts a personal note in the paper, e.g., 6 March 1941: [Letters from boys at the front are most interesting to their friends; pass the news on to them through 'The Camden News'.]




The book focuses squarely on the printed articles which were in the Camden News. These are available through the wonderful resource Trove, https: //trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/, but Janice inserts the information from the National Archives of Australia https: //recordsearch.naa.gov.au/ on World War II men and women. The book also includes some personal letters available only at the Camden Museum. Through the book, the poppy represents the death of a soldier