Ivan D. Chapman papers, 189--1994

fonds

189--1994

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Clippings, Photographs, Objects

90819

5.38 metres of textual material (18 boxes, 6 outsize boxes) includes photographs - manuscript, photocopy, typescript, typescript, photocopy, typescript, carbon, typescript, processed, printed, and printed, photocopy
Clippings - some photocopies
Objects
Sound Recordings

Ivan Chapman (1919-1994) was born at Werris Creek, NSW. He was a pioneering television journalist and producer for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. In 1976 he took up freelance journalism and further writing on Australian military history. He had served in the AIF during World War II. He was captured in Greece by the Germans and spent four years in prisoner-of-war camps. His experiences of wartime incarceration were the basis for his novel, Details Enclosed (1958).

Chapman published three books drawn from extensive historical researches. He received the Australian War Memorial's first research scholarship, 1968-1969, which contributed to the writing of Iven G. Mackay: Citizen and Soldier (1975), a biography of Lieutenant-General Sir Iven Mackay, an Australian field commander in both world wars. Private Eddie Leonski, The Brownout Strangler (1982) related the story of an American soldier who murdered three Melbourne women in 1942 and was hanged after being convicted by a US court-martial in Australia, a legal precedent in this country. Tokyo Calling: The Charles Cousens Case (1990) was a biography of Major Charles Cousens, an Australian POW under the Japanese who was coerced to broadcast and write propaganda scripts for Radio Tokyo.

An uncompleted writing project was his commissioned history of the Sydney University Regiment (SUR). Chapman had served in the SUR from September 1939 to March 1940. He commenced research in the late 1970s, aided by a range of documentary sources largely compiled by the late Lieutenant-Colonel Alan B. Lilley, SUR historian and a former Commanding Officer of the unit.

I. Papers, 1940-1992, concerning Iven G. Mackay: Citizen and Soldier (1975)
II. Papers, 1942, 1963-1982, concerning Private Eddie Leonski, The Brownout Strangler (1982)
III. Papers, 1931-1994, concerning Tokyo Calling: The Charles Cousens Case (1990)
IV. Papers, 189--1987, concerning the of history of the Sydney University Regiment
V. Sound recordings

This collection comprises 5 record series. You may navigate to a more detailed description of each series from this collection record.

Copyright status:: In copyright - This collection has multiple rights owners
Research & study copies allowed: Applies only to material in which Ivan D. Chapman owns copyright