What is Beyond 1914 ?
Beyond 1914 — The University of Sydney and the Great War is an extensive, searchable database of biographies and archival information about members of the University community involved in the First World War.
Built on the legacy of information provided to the University between 1915 and 1938 by more than 2000 former staff, students, graduates and their families (later published in the University’s Book of Remembrance), Beyond 1914 features insights into the lives of these men and women before, during and after the war.
This short film takes you behind-the-scenes at the University Archives. It explains how the Book of Remembrance was created back in 1939 and reveals just a handful of the thousands of stories that can now be found on Beyond 1914.
In 2025, The University of Sydney’s War Memorial Committee records were added to the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register. These records include the biographical files collected to compile the Book of Remembrance, which form the basis of Beyond 1914.
The success of the Beyond 1914 project has supported the development of a national project Expert Nation: Universities, War and 1920s & 1930s Australia funded by the Australian Research Council 2016-20, and which assisted the further development of Beyond 1914.
The University of Adelaide as a partner in the Expert Nation project has now produced its own website November 1918:Emerging from the Great War. This website holds information specific to University of Adelaide alumni, staff and students and was populated by volunteers working with the university archives since 2016.
Header photograph by Sam Hood, taken at the University of Sydney in 1927.
Courtesy of the collections of the State Library of NSW
