‘No other cause for my breakdown in health’: the impact of wartime captivity in interwar Australia, 1918-1939

More than 3,600 Australian servicemen returned home after having been prisoners of war during the First World War. Focusing on the period from 1918 to 1939, this thesis explores interactions between former prisoners of war and the Repatriation Department, the organisation responsible for providing medical and financial support to veterans. It argues that while captivity was not overtly stigmatised, it was an ambivalent and poorly understood experience, which could constitute an additional burden for veterans seeking medical and material support from the Repatriation Department.