Stanley Melbourne Bruce's Cigarette Case

Stanley Melbourne Bruce’s Cigarette Case is an episode from the series The Prime Ministers’ National Treasures, produced in 2007.

The Prime Ministers’ National Treasures
Award winning cartoonist and yarn spinner, Warren Brown, reveals the emotional lives of Australian Prime Ministers through 10 objects they used every day or even adored – from Robert Menzies’ home movie camera, to Joseph Lyons’ love letters, Harold Holt’s briefcase and Ben Chifley’s pipe. These treasures reveal the nation’s leaders, as you have never seen them before.

The Prime Ministers’ National Treasures is a Film Australia National Interest Program produced in association with Old Parliament House and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Outcomes
A student:
5.2 assesses the impact of international events and relationships on Australia’s history
5.4 sequences major historical events to show an understanding of continuity, change and causation
5.5 identifies, comprehends and evaluates historical sources
5.6 uses sources appropriately in an historical inquiry
5.7 explains different contexts, perspectives and interpretations of the past
5.10 selects and uses appropriate oral, written and other forms, including ICT, to communicate effectively about the past for different audiences.

Stanley Melbourne Bruce was born into a wealthy commercial family, and was an outstanding athlete at school and later Cambridge University, where he qualified as a barrister.

He was in England when war was declared in 1914, and enlisted in the British Army. He was awarded the Military Cross, a high order award for bravery in battle, at Gallipoli.

He was wounded and returned to Australia in 1917. He entered the Commonwealth Parliament in 1918, and served as Treasurer, and then Prime Minister. He served as Australia’s High Commissioner to Britain between 1933 and 1945.

Until the day he died, Stanley Melbourne Bruce kept two photographs in his study – one of his wife and one of Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish state. As young men they were enemies at Gallipoli, but during the post-war years of international reconstruction, they forged a mutual admiration as passionate advocates of secularism. After the League of Nations Montreux conference in 1936, that successfully organised the international passage or warships through the Dardanelles and Bosporus Straits of Turkey, Atatürk presented Bruce with a gold cigarette case, which he treasured for the rest of his life.

Stanley Melbourne Bruce (1883 – 1967) was Prime Minister of Australia from February 1923 to October 1929. Stanley Melbourne Bruce’s cigarette case is held at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra.

1. Interrogating objects

History sometimes involves the study of artifacts — often in a museum, as part of a site study. Objects and artifacts can tell you about a person or a time — but only if you can ‘interrogate’ them to find out what their story is.

Here are questions that you can use on museum objects, such as this one about the Prime Minister, to help reveal the meaning and significance of objects.

• Describe the object. (Size, shape, materials, function etc.)
• What does it show? — People? Symbols? Words? If so, who or what are they?
• What is its context? (Time, place, social group etc.)
• Who produced it?
• For what possible purpose/s?
• Who was it meant for? (Just one person, or a whole audience?)
• What might it tell us about attitudes and values — that is, those things that people believe are the right way to behave?
• What does it tell us about how people behaved at the time?

Now write a summary sentence beginning:

‘This object helps me understand or realise that . . . ‘

2. Gallipoli – image and reality

Gallipoli is a key part of Australia’s sense of national identity. This raises many questions:

• Why is it considered so important?
• Has this always been the case, or has it changed over time?
• How have our attitudes to Gallipoli changed?
• How has our commemoration of it changed over time?
• Is it changing still?
• What does Gallipoli mean to young people today?

You can start exploring these ideas in STUDIES magazine (Ryebuck Media) 1/2003, ‘ANZAC Day — Does it have meaning for young people today?’

Go to National Archives of Australia – Australian Prime Ministers

Go to Australian War Memorial

See STUDIES magazine (Ryebuck Media) 1/2006 ‘What happened to Australia’s returned soldiers in the 1920s?

Two 2005 documentaries, Gallipoli and Revealing Gallipoli, explore the role of Kemal Ataturk at Gallipoli. A study guide for both is available at Metro Magazine