Memory, Time, and Law

ABSTRACT

This chapter takes an initial sidestep from the Anzac focus and into an examination of the British mobilizations of war memories, grounded in the origin of the Anzac story in the failed British Naval campaign which led to the landing of Anzac troops at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 as part of the Allied war effort in WWI. It emphasizes how impressions of British military power, and deference to significant figures within the British Navy, overrode contemporary considerations and became a powerful impetus behind particular courses of action. As such, it considers how the temporality of expectation in relation to times of conflict is equally oriented to the past and the future, and is underscored by militarized mnemohistories. The chapter focuses on both the origins of Anzac Day and a parallel discussion of the UK response to COVID-19, as another example of how militarized popular memories are mobilized as a means of making sense of emergent crises, demonstrating how the mnemonic temporality of militarized expectations is entangled with legal consciousness. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.