Introduction

This is a second website associated with the Montmorency Eltham RSL. The principal website contains information related to Current Events & Activities, Hospitality, Membership, and Welfare. Information about any of these areas can be found on that website (click here).

This website concerns the History & Heritage of our RSL. Our History involves the following:

* the Montmorency Sub Branch (and later, Montmorency Eltham) and the associated Club,

* the premises that we meet (and have met) in,

* the people who are (or have been) members of the Club, and

* the items which remind our members of their time on active service or of the time spent by their friends or relatives who served.

On its own, the 'history' is a chronological record of events, people and places, but 'heritage' is more than that. It refers to the respect that we have for those earlier members, and the efforts undertaken by them to shape the institution that we enjoy today. More importantly, 'heritage' also refers to the deeper respect that we hold for those who have been members of the armed services, especially those who have served overseas.

For many years, we have maintained an ever-increasing collection of items which relate in some way to the military service experienced by our members and those from the wider community. Since receiving training in preservation of museum items from the Victorian Collections organization, we have increased the work we undertake to formally catalogue these items. But the group of members who have worked on this have also undertaken wider research into the military experiences and general background of our members who served in overseas operations (largely, the focus to date has been on WW1 and WW2). This wider focus has prompted the Committee to re-name the group as the History & Heritage Sub-Committee.