Conclusion

Abstract

The Empire’s Patriotic Fund was one of Australia’s first attempts to deal with the question of assistance for the dependants of the men at the front and the men incapacitated by war in a sustained conflict, the Boer War . Its response to the issue of what society owes the dependants of men fighting in a war and, more particularly, men incapacitated by war, was often patchy, sometimes contradictory. However, it is not to its discredit that it failed to find an answer because that question has still to be answered.