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A vision for Melbourne: Hope and resilience after the First World War
The shared history between Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and the Shrine of Remembrance shaped and changed the trajectory of Melbourne to help it become the beautiful and vibrant international city it is today.
In the early 1920s, Melbourne was recovering from the influenza pandemic and the First World War. As soldiers returned home over months and years, they brought with them many health problems and traumas of war. With the public’s charity diverted to the war effort and healthcare costs rising due to inflation and demand, Melbourne’s overcrowded, under-funded public hospitals were struggling.
In the years between 1918 to 1925, maintenance costs for hospitals increased by 50 per cent, and funding was never certain as government funding for hospitals was limited.
Melburnians were generous donors, but fundraising collections could be haphazard. In 1922, the city took a major step forward. The Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Sir John Swanson, assembled a committee of councillors, philanthropists, business owners and hospital staff to address hospital fundraising.
Sir John Swanson was a visionary businessman who could see the need for improved public access to hospital care after the war, and the need to publicly honour returned service men and women. He established the Lord Mayor’s Fund for Metropolitan Hospitals and Charities in 1923, whilst also serving as Chairman of the National War Memorial Committee. This committee was responsible for selecting the design entry that would ultimately become the Shrine of Remembrance.
These two important projects provided Melbourne with the hope it needed to recover from the First World War. They provided the people of Melbourne a trusted place to make donations for hospitals and a special place to honour and commemorate Australians in service.
Community efforts after the First World War paved the way to also address the devastation of the influenza pandemic.
Today, Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation continues to support the health and wellbeing of Greater Melbourne through grant making and donor services, and the Shrine of Remembrance is one of Australia’s most important memorials, honouring the service and sacrifice of Australians in war and peacekeeping.
The Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation is a supporter of Remembrance magazine.
