Private Marshall Hughes papers

MLMSS 12030

fonds

between 1954 and 1955

9676100

0.03 metres of textual and graphic material (1 folder)

Private Marshall Hughes served as a bandsman in Korea with the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (RAR), 1954-1955, as part of the Australian component of the international peacekeeping force after the Korean War ended in 1953.
Reference: Library correspondence file

​​Illustrated correspondence between Private Marshall Hughes (Royal Australian Regiment, Korea) his wife Joyce Hughes (nee Orrell), and his sister-in-law, commercial artist Gwen Orrell, 1954-1955​. With memorabilia and ephemera.

Includes personal letters between Marshall Hughes and his wife Joyce (nee Orrell). Joyce’s letters relay family news and details of her life in Sydney while living with Marshall’s brother Arthur Hughes and wife Noreen in Willoughby.

Letters to Marshall from his sister-in-law Gwen Orrell, a commercial artist at Empire Art Co, Sydney. The letters feature Gwen’s gouache illustrations of pin-up girls, ink cartoons and caricature of herself.

There are no letters by Marshall himself, only postmarked envelopes and fragments which are illustrated with his comic drawings, including ‘bath day’ in Korea and Japan (where he also spent time). A photograph of the 1st Battalion RAR band includes Marshall, although not identified. Printed memorabilia includes an autographed menu from his troopship SS New Australia 1954, and an advertisement from Katsuura Tailor Co, given to Australian servicemen to encourage them to ‘bring back a Japanese-made foreign suit’.

Letters:
1-11) 11 covers (no contents) illustrated in ink by Marshall Hughes, Korea, to his wife Joyce in Sydney, postmarked for Australia Unit Postal Station [AUPS] 388, 1954-1955 (as used by 1st RAR)

12) ink drawing, 'Bath Day in Japan’

13-22) 10 letters (5 being fragments), 1954-1955, from Joyce to Marshall Hughes in Korea

23-25) 2 hand-illustrated letters from Gwen Orrell, Sydney, to Marshall Hughes, Korea, one dated 25st Feb, [1955], illustrated in gouache & watercolor; the other, dated 8 November [1954], decorated with ink drawings; Plus, illustrated envelope attrib. to Gwen, dated 29/11/1954, ink, watercolor & gouache

26) Undated letter to Joyce from her friend Edna with account of leaving Sydney for Melbourne to work at the RAAF base at Point Cook.

27) Letter to Joyce from her aunt at Mosman

28) Letter from Aiko Kawada, Kure

Memorabilia:

29) Printed menu, SS New Australia, 29 March 1954, with signatures to verso & later note by Marshall Hughes, 'KEEP THIS/ signature of the men at my table on the ship’

30) U.S. MARINE CORPS 179 Anniversary 1954, printed, illustrated bifold menu

31) Printed leaflets, eg for Katsuur Tailor Co., Kure, Japan, c. 1955

32) Printed invitation from North Sydney Transport Club to Marshall & Joyce Hughes & Battalion Band, 18th Annual Presentation Dance

Photographs:

33) Band of 1st RAR, silver gelatin photograph, verso stamp Thiel Studios, Brisbane, c.I950s

34) Photograph of sailor with arms around Japanese woman, possibly Aiko Kawada

35) Kodak folder of Marshall Hughes, ca 1954

36) 4 color photographs of grave and burial plaque of Marshall’s brother Arthur Hughes, 2010

In copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales