Telegram addressed to Lieutenant Commodore J Donovan regarding the birth of his son, 1942

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Type: Telegrams
Date: 1942
Place: Suva, Viti Levu, Fiji
Materials: Paper
Collection: Donovan Family collection
Accession number: 2006.0053.0003

Description

Telegram printed with "NAVAL MESSAGE / To: Australia / From: N.O.C.S. / Please inform Lt. Comdr. J. DONOVAN beg ins:- / Son born Tuesday 10th, both well, Windeyer, ends". It has four ring-binder holes along the top edge.

About the collection

The Donovan Collection No. 2 comprises a silver cigarette box, bassinette, telegram and parish newsletter. The cigarette box was a gift for the donor's parents, Lieutenant Commander Jack Donovan and Dr Ella Donovan on the occasion of their wedding in 1941. The bassinette, telegram and parish newsletter relate to the birth of their first son John in 1942. The National Museum of Australia already holds Mrs Donovan's wedding dress which was donated in 1990. The set of items on offer connect the experiences of one family during the Second World War to wider issues surrounding war-time marriage, population growth, infant welfare groups and rationing. Jack and Ella married in 1941, and their first child John was born in February 1942, in the period before war time rationing was enforced in Australia. During the war, the birth rate in Australia rose significantly encouraged by policies of population growth. Ella's experiences of motherhood would have been inflected by her own medical training as an obstetrician and gynaecologist and by a wider social emphasis on mothercraft and child welfare.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:44:31 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-24. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.