1950 - 1959:  A Changing World

Missing Soldiers The Bureau for Wounded, Missing and Prisoners of War began in Sydney during the Great War. It would be at its busiest during World War II. During 1944 & 1945, for example, 50,159 messages, generated from NSW alone, were transported into enemy held territory. This service also assisted with the delivery of care parcels to POWs from loved ones back home.

Before There Was TV Library services were a core function of Australian Red Cross for a long time, as was supplying reading material to soldiers during war.  Television did not begin in Australia until 1956 and it was expensive. Reading was a great diversional aid, particularly for repatriating ex-service personnel. In 1958 for example volunteers in the Red Cross library service in NSW distributed: 8,375 books and 38,810 magazines to 200 hospitals and airfreighted 8,333 newspapers to Malaya for serving officers.