{"id":597546,"date":"2026-04-10T08:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/597546\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T08:57:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:57:07","slug":"australian-war-memorial-amends-ben-roberts-smith-display-after-former-soldier-charged-with-war-crimes-ben-roberts-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/597546\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian War Memorial amends Ben Roberts-Smith display after former soldier charged with war crimes | Ben Roberts-Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian War Memorial has updated the display dedicated to Ben Roberts-Smith after the former Special Air Service (SAS) corporal was officially charged with five counts of the war crime of murder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The changes, implemented on Friday, mean nearly half of the descriptive plaque in the museum\u2019s Hall of Valour is now dedicated to events occurring after his military service, beginning with the initial reports of misconduct in 2016.<\/p>\n

Previously, the display concluded by noting that Roberts-Smith had not been charged with any criminal offence.<\/p>\n

As of Friday, the updated text now reads:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn April 2026, Roberts-Smith was charged with five counts of the war crime of murder. The legal process is ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

At a media conference on Friday, Matt Anderson, director of the Australian War Memorial, said the museum remained committed to keeping the public informed but also to the principle of the presumption of innocence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe memorial\u2019s commitment throughout this entire process \u2026 has been to ensure that the panel in the galleries is up to date and covers the facts,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very conscious now, [given] the gravity of the charges that have been laid, the most important thing all of us can do now is allow justice to take its course \u2026 and there\u2019s nothing I am going to say or do today or at any stage in the Australian War Memorial that will influence or impact on the opportunities of a fair trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve done consistently is update the panel in the galleries to keep the visiting public abreast of where that case is at, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done again today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The updated Ben Roberts-Smith panel at the Australian War Memorial. Photograph: Supplied<\/p>\n

Anderson said Roberts-Smith\u2019s equipment, uniform, and medal groups would remain on display.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason Ben Roberts-Smith<\/a>, VC, MG, is in the Hall of Valor at the Australian War Memorial is because of his actions in Tizak in the Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province in Afghanistan on 11 June, 2010,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why he\u2019s up in the galleries in the Hall of Valor with other recipients of the Victoria Cross \u2013 for his actions on that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing of the panel update as Roberts-Smith awaits a bail hearing has come at an inopportune time for the institution, which opened 7,000 square metres of gallery space on Friday as part of its controversial $500m expansion project.<\/p>\n

The redevelopment was designed to modernise the site and provide more space to honour recent conflicts, but public and media attention has remained fixed on the Hall of Valour.<\/p>\n

The Roberts-Smith panel in that hall is expected to remain in its current form until a verdict is reached in any criminal trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian War Memorial has updated the display dedicated to Ben Roberts-Smith after the former Special Air Service…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-597546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}