21/06/2026
‘History of the 15th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, 1914-1918’, by Lieutenant T. F. Chataway, revised and edited by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Goldenstedt. Published by William Brooks & Co (Q.) Pty. Ltd., Brisbane 1948. 327-pages with ten leaves of plates.
This publication is shown here in both its standard bound copy version and in a deluxe red crocodile-patterned padded leather bound version with gilt lettering on the spine and the front cover.** The cloth bound copy has a colourised unit patch with an ANZAC ‘A’ device superimposed over it, instantly recognisable to its targeted audience of returned servicemen of the 15th Battalion AIF.
The primary author served with the 15th Battalion AIF. Thomas Percival Chataway, a labourer from Queensland, enlisted as a Private in October 1914 aged 23-years. Chataway served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front where he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in September 1917. He returned to Australia in 1919.
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Goldenstedt MiD was a professional journalist with the Sydney ‘Daily Telegraph’ when he also enlisted in the AIF in 1914. He served at Gallipoli with the infantry and then in the Middle East with the Light Horse and the Imperial Camel Corps. Both men were in their 50s when the book was published in 1948. Chataway’s intimate and personal knowledge of the 15th and Goldensted’s profession as a journalist was a good basis for co-operation.
The book is divided into eighteen chapters with a 150-page nominal roll of names of men who served overseas, an Honours and Awards list, and a ‘Deceased Roll’.
Three-quarters of the battalion’s men were recruited from the state of Queensland, and the remainder from the island state of Tasmania forming the new unit’s B Company. With the 13th, 14th and 16th Battalions it constituted the infantry of the 4th Brigade. The book chronicles the 15th Battalion's experiences from its formation and training in the state of Victoria, to overseas service in, Egypt, at Gallipoli, then from 1916 to 1918 in France and Belgium with the 2nd Division AIF.
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It is unusual to find a Great War regimental history of an Australian infantry battalion published so late in the piece when it has been sponsored by the regimental association of its returned servicemen and then to have it revised and edited by an entirely new author before publication. This is what has happened with this ‘revised and edited’ history of the 15th Battalion, published in 1948.
The history was still only a ‘work in progress’ in 1939 with final arrangements almost in place for publication. During the mid ‘20s and ‘30s the author, Lieutenant Chataway, devoted extensive time and his personal finances to researching the book and writing the draft. He placed advertisements in Tasmanian and Queensland newspapers (an example shown here from ‘Trove’) asking for contributions from those who had served in or otherwise had knowledge of the 15th Battalion at war.
The author took over ten years to write the History and then reduced his active participation in the final editing. This responsibility was shared with or fell to Lieutenant Colonel Paul Goldenstedt to complete.
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Like other former battalions of the AIF, the 15th maintained an active post-war association for its former members. The 15th formed the “Angels Remembrance Club’ at some point, a name perhaps chosen in honour of the memory of the men who had lost their lives in the Great War fighting with the 15th. It was slow off the mark in actively managing the writing and publication of the unit history.
A record of proceedings for the year 1939 (reproduced here) includes reference to a donation of £10/1/- to the author T. F. Chataway as a contribution to covering his costs. The history was not published until 1948, ostensibly because of the intervening Second World War. The author has not found an earlier or un-revised published edition of this history. It may only have existed as a working daft copy or copies with a very limited circulation permitting its revision before first publication.
A soft-cover edition was published in the 1990s in association with the Imperial War Museum
Credit: Michael Treloar Antiquarian Booksellers, the ADFA AIF Database, and ‘Trove’ newspaper archives.
Note: It is is possible that the deluxe leather edition was reserved for presentation copies to contributors.
