18 Facts About Lionel Wigmore

Lionel Gage Wigmore was an English-born Australian journalist and military historian.

Lionel Wigmore was born in Brockhampton, Herefordshire, in England on 14 March 1899 to Charles Wigmore, a farmer, and his wife Arabella.

When Wigmore was 10 years old, the family emigrated to New Zealand, where they settled in Christchurch.

Lionel Wigmore attended the Normal District High School and after he finished his schooling in 1915, he found employment at The Press, a Christchurch newspaper.

Lionel Wigmore served in the Australian Citizen Force, the country's part-time militia, as a lieutenant in the Army Service Corps.

In February 1942, with the Japanese having pushed the British and Allied forces in Malaya back to Singapore Island, Lionel Wigmore was evacuated to Java.

Lionel Wigmore served briefly as an assistant Australian government commissioner, working to arrange supplies to be sent to Australia from Netherlands East Indies, before it, like Singapore, was captured by the Japanese.

In 1944, Lionel Wigmore was appointed chief administration officer, based out of Canberra, and then the following year was sent to India.

Lionel Wigmore was attached to the Australian High Commissioner's office as a public relations officer.

Lionel Wigmore returned to Canberra in 1947 as a representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Lionel Wigmore progressed the project for the next several years, planning various volumes and identifying potential authors.

Lionel Wigmore had to deal with attempts by a member of the Australian Government, Wilfrid Kent Hughes, who was a prominent former officer in the 8th Division, to influence his treatment of Gordon Bennett's leadership of the division in Singapore.

Lionel Wigmore already had an acrimonious relationship with Bennett from his own time in Singapore and this worsened with allegations from Bennett of bias and inaccuracy.

Lionel Wigmore was again based in India, and retired in 1962.

Lionel Wigmore continued to write and was a co-author with Bruce Harding of They Dared Mightily, an account of the Australian Victoria Cross recipients, published in 1963.

Lionel Wigmore later moved to Hobart in Tasmania, where he died on 8 November 1989, at the age of 90.

Lionel Wigmore was survived by his wife Emily, who he had married in 1926, and a daughter.

Lionel Wigmore's papers are held by the National Library of Australia.