... ...Frank Cahir: Graves Detachment Photographer......Photograph: Frank Cahir......While battle hardened and highly decorated soldiers such as Staff-Sgt. Frank Cahir from Yendon in central Victoria had seen death in the trenches of Gallipoli - and then the killing fields of France, his daily work as an Australian war graves worker would have been markedly different. ......The grim routine took a lasting emotional toll. Frank Cahir volunteered for Graves Detachment duty in Europe without returning to his family in Victoria. When he finally did return, in 1921, he struggled adjusting to life in Australia, eventually suiciding; leaving behind a young family.
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When WW1 brought Australians face to face with mass death, a Red Cross Information Bureau and post-war graves workers laboured to help families grieve for the missing.
The unprecedented death toll of the First World War generated a burden of grief. Particularly disturbing was the vast number of dead who were “missing” - their bodies never found.
This film and series of photo essays explores two unsung humanitarian responses to the crisis of the missing of World War 1 – the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau and the post-war work of the Australian Graves Detachment and Graves Services. It tells of a remarkable group of men and women, ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, who laboured to provide comfort and connection to grieving families in distant Australia.
