INSPIRE: Williams’ farmer Louise Higham on her 4th collection of war biographies Kojonup: For King and Country

A Wheatbelt author who has written more than a thousand biographies on Great Southern war veterans has published her latest book, this time focusing on Kojonup. Featuring 370 personal narratives and restored photographs of men and women who served overseas in World War II, Kojonup: For King And Country is Louise Higham’s fourth collection of veteran biographies. Higham said she wrote the book to help families understand what their ancestors had been through. “We all say ‘we will remember them’ but it’s in a general sense but now they’ve got a personal connection,” she said. “I want to keep preserving that personal connection to Australia’s military history and various people have said they have learnt things they didn’t know about their family. “I wrote it with the grandchildren in mind because as they get older and become interested, sadly the veterans have gone.” Higham first dabbled in biography writing while studying history at the University of Tasmania, where she wrote a biography of her great-grandfather — a senator in Australia’s first Federal Parliament with an extensive military career — as part of a project by Australian National University. She also wrote articles for the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia about of her grandfather’s cousin who established a coconut plantation in the Trobriand Islands. Higham said she never dreamt of becoming an author, instead pursuing secondary teaching, travelling in Europe and getting her diploma in librarianship. She moved to Williams in the 1980s with her husband where they took up farming and raised two sons. Higham’s decade long journey into history writing began when she realised the town did not have a war memorial. She and two other locals lobbied for its construction and gained immense community support with more than 60 submissions via phone, letter and email delivered to shire councillors. The memorial plus her passion for history sparked a deep dive into the town’s front-line veterans. “I started researching names on the honour boards and two dozen had died on active service in the First World War,” she said. “I thought gosh, these stories should be shared, and that’s how my first book came into being.” Drawing primarily on the National Archives of Australia, WA’s Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages and memoirs, Higham also met former veterans, allowing them to tell their stories in their own words. One such veteran, Williams soldier Kelvin “Curley” Schaper, also features in the oil painting that graces the cover of On Active Service, Higham’s first book published in 2016. Higham said stopping at one book felt like “unfinished business” so she investigated and published stories from bordering shires. On Active Service II followed in 2019 and From Woodanilling To War in 2021. The books encompass World Wars I and II, battles in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Korea and the Malayan Emergency through the eyes of cooks, soldiers, nurses and prisoners of war. Higham said she felt accomplished and satisfied with her published works and will be putting the pen down to focus on her grandchildren, gardening, the farm and enjoying retirement. Kojonup: For King And Country, published by Vivid Publishing in December 2024, can be purchased through Higham at rlhigham@bigpond.com. It is also available at Kodja Place and Paperbark Merchants on York Street in Albany.

INSPIRE: Williams’ farmer Louise Higham on her 4th collection of war biographies Kojonup: For King and Country

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