During the First World War, over 416,000 Australian Diggers volunteered to serve from 1914-1918.  During the course of the war 60,000 of these volunteers died, while an additional 155,000 were gassed or wounded.  The horrors of the War left scars among many Veterans that lingered through the remainder of their lives.

To date, while research has documented the horrors of the War among the Diggers, the impact of single events like shell blast injuries and gassing, along with cumulative exposures to adversity during active service, have not been systematically explored over the life course.   Using the Diggers to Veterans dataset, this study examines the outcomes of 9650 Veterans from Victoria who survived the War.  

In presenting our results, we make use of various administrative records, including service records, vital registration data, and Veterans Administration records, to examine life course outcomes for health, socioeconomic class, family outcomes, and death to see how gassing, artillery blasts, and cumulative adversities during services impact later life outcomes.   

While the War largely had negative effects on veterans, we examine how factors such as social class, family stability, valour awards and promotion may provide resiliency to poorer outcomes in life. These results help to narrate the historical life course outcomes for Veterans and also, due to continued risk of blast injuries, threat of chemical weapons, and cumulative adversities in current and future conflicts, insights into how these risks may impact current and future Australian veteran populations.

Mike Roettger is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Demography at ANU.  His research examines how adversity influences health and wellbeing at later stages in the life course, along with factors that may lead to resiliency to adversities in later life.  Mike’s research interests include maternal and child health, historical demography, health and illness, and the impact of familial imprisonment and violence on adult health and the transition to adulthood.

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