Bandsman Vosti’s Diaries – War and Peace in Essendon, 1917-1920 by Lenore Frost

Product details
Paperback: 196 pages
Publisher: Lenore Frost (2012)
ISBN: 9780958055826
Trim size: 247 x 185 mm
 
Synopsis   
John Vosti is the father of a large family living in the western suburbs of Melbourne during the Great War.   In 1917 he is working at the Cordite Factory, Maribyrnong, and playing with the Essendon City Council Band.  His eldest son, Les, is in France with the AIF as a bandsman/stretcher-bearer.
 
John Vosti’s diaries, covering 1917 to 1920, give a detailed account of  the daily life of a working family caught up in the struggle of a nation at war. Anxiously awaiting news from their soldier son, they participate in pro-Conscription rallies and patriotic events.  At the war’s end the struggle continues with industrial disputes affecting their jobs, while the Spanish flu epidemic rages through the district.
 
These unique diaries offer a special insight into the life of an ordinary working family in a difficult period in Australia’s history.