ANZAC day was on the weekend and in light of that, this week Dr Kate discussed Joseph John Talbot Hobbs who kept five diaries throughout World War I.
The dairies were donated to the State Library in 2001 and added to an existing archival collection of material related to Hobbs. During the WWI Centenary, the Library ran an extensive project to identify and digitise World War I materials in the collection – the Hobbs diaries were digitised as part of that work.
Hobbs is notable not only for his military career, but also as significant Western Australian Architect, responsible for many iconic buildings designed in the Federation style during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Sadly, not many of his buildings remain. The State Library also holds a selection of architectural drawings by Hobbs.
The diaries have been digitised and are available online through the State Library catalogue. To access PDFs of the digitised diaries click the green 'Download' button, then 'I Agree and Download'.
There are also a number of other Talbot Hobbs records and architectural drawings available on the catalogue.
Recorded live on ABC Radio Perth on 28 April 2020.