The 2025 FFFAIF Annual General Meeting and John Laffin Memorial Lecture series
were held at the Anzac Memorial Auditorium, Hyde Park, Sydney, on Saturday 15th November, 2025.
FFFAIF Annual General Meeting preceded the lecture
FFFAIF Members can download a copy of the FFFAIF Annual Report for the AGM from this link. The booklet may be printed as an A5 booklet on printers that offer that option.
Click here to access the Guide to printing the AGM booklet
The 2025 John Laffin Memorial Lecture (public lecture)
The John Laffin Memorial Lecture was streamed live on ‘Teams’ courtesy of the Anzac Memorial and the NSW Office of Veterans’ Affairs.
As a prelude to the Lecture Jim Munro, President FFFAIF, presented a contextual overview of the development of Australian naval forces and their deployment as part of the Imperial Navy during the Great War with a focus on the submarines AE1 and AE2. In particular, the stationing of Royal Navy ships in the Indo-Pacific in, China Australia and Singapore to dominate the naval forces of other countries, particularly Germany’s East Asia Squadron and to protect the British trade routes and the global cable and wireless network that linked the British Empire. The desire of the Dominions, especially Australia, to have their own fleet unit, which in time of global conflict would be part of the Imperial Navy, saw the Australian Commonwealth Naval Forces formed in 1911 with 2 ships and expanded to a fighting fleet unit by 1914.
With the outbreak of War, the Royal Australian Navy was tasked with helping shut down the German global wireless network as well as searching for and destroying the German Squadron as well as escorting convoys of troops. Hence the RAN vessels including both submarines, AE1 and AE2 helped shut-down the German wireless station near Rabaul. It was here that the AE1 mysteriously disappeared. The most powerful “British” ship in the Pacific was HMAS Australia, which deterred the German Squadron from approaching Australia and contributed to the German squadron departing the Pacific, where they were devastated in the Battle of the Falkland Islands. When the HMAS Sydney defeated the SMS Emden in the Cocos Keeling Island in the Indian Ocean, there were no German warships in the Pacific and the RAN ships were transferred to patrol the Atlantic, North Sea, Mediterranean and African coasts. Hence the Australian submarine AE2 joined the operations at the Dardanelles, where after some achievements, she was scuttled.
The 2025 John Laffin Memorial Lecture was presented by Tim Smith OAM,
Director Assessments, Heritage NSW at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
Tim described the mysteries surrounding the disappearances of the AE1 and AE2, the searches undertaken to locate the wrecks, and the maritime archaeological exploration that followed to study their fate and the condition they are now in. With some behind-the-scenes stories Tim explained the highlights of ‘Project Beneath Gallipoli’. Tim brought his expertise and experiences together to tell a revealing story of Australia’s first submarines at war and their rediscovery.
Tim Smith OAM and the AE2 scale model at the Anzac Memorial
More images on our FFFAIF Facebook page
Interested in joining FFFAIF?
JOIN US and RENEWALS | Families and Friends of the First AIF
or contact membership@fffaif.org.au
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