This remarkable collage was one of a number commissioned by Melbourne business identity John Wren. It features 14 Victoria Cross awardees of World War I, all of whom served with the Australian Imperial Force. This was the copy presented, as the title says, by the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix to Lieutenant John Hamilton VC. Hamilton's portrait appears just to the left of the Archbishop from the viewer's perspective and he is the only one of the nine Australians who were awarded VCs during the Gallipoli campaign featured here. The other thirteen VCs all gained their awards for actions on the Western Front in France and Belgium between 1916 and 1918.
The story behind this collage is complicated. Basically, in the immediate post-war period there was a struggle going on in Ireland to end British rule there. Mannix, an Irishman, was a strong supporter of the Irish cause and in Australia at the time the strong Irish-derived Catholic community in general also supported the Irish demand for self government. Some Australians accused the Catholic community of disloyalty to Australia and the Empire and a great many bitter public meetings and demonstrations were held by both sides. The Australian press in particular took a decidedly pro-British line in the conflict.
In 1920, a special St Patrick's Day parade took place in Melbourne in which Mannix's car was preceded through the city by 14 Australian VCs in uniform mounted on grey horses. John Hamilton VC took part in this demonstration of Irish-Austrian solidarity with Ireland's cause, a demonstration which was also calculated to indicate by the presence of these VCs, and many others in AIF uniform, that Catholic Australia had been loyal to Australia's cause during the war. What is interesting is that four of the VCs were not Catholics, an indication that support for Ireland was also there in the broader community. [AWM P1383/17]