The Empire Air Training Scheme: Identity, Empire and Memory

that are used to explore the changes that have occurred in images around EATS. Thelast section provides an outline of the chapters in this thesis.Empire, Masculinity and FlightIn Australia the institution of EATS and its operation were constructed aroundthree major concepts: Australian-Empire relationships, masculinity and the technologyof flight. Each of these formed part of the Australian social and cultural collectiveidentity of 1939 and as such impacted upon individual identity. Each contributed indifferent ways to the conception and initial success surrounding EATS and each,although for very different reasons, would be subjected to various influences, both inthe aerial war of 1939-1945 and in the following decades, forming part of thecontinual restructuring of the past. Filtered and manipulated, adjusted to the demandsof particular situations, these values of the late 1930s would, over the decades,produce the collective and individual memories that survive around EATS in thetwenty first century.EmpireThe contribution of concepts of Empire to Australian cultural and politicalvalues has preoccupied an increasing place of prominent interest among Australianhistorians as they reflect on the changing nature of Australian identity. In the 1930sthe centrality of Empire to Australian identity was expressed in the inspirational wordsscripted for Governor Phillip in a 1938 sequicentenary celebration in Sydney: ‘It isnow fitting that we should turn our minds to the purpose underlying this enterprisewhich is to plant a fresh sprig of Empire in this new and vast land. It may be that thiscountry will become the most valuable acquisition Britain has ever made.’ 24 In 1939,politicians were committed to Empire in the unquestioning embrace of EATS asrecorded in an Argus graphic ‘The Cubs are with you, Dad.’ 25 In records of menenlisting and in later interviews all reminisced on the importance of Britain in their24 Governor Phillip’s Speech typescript, NSWSA, 9/2444A.2, 1 cited in Julian Thomas, ‘1938: Pastand present in an elaborate anniversary,’ Australian Historical Studies 23, 91, 1988 77-89.25 Argus June 19, 1940, 4, saved in Keith Dunstan’s scrap book S.L.V. MS 104697