... ...Australian Graves Detachment......William McBeath: Graves Detachment Digger......Photograph: No 5 Company of the Australian Graves Detachment...My mother, Norma Harrison, is the keeper of the family history with a trove of old photos, letters, diaries, clippings and memorabilia stashed away in the back of her wardrobe. In 1994 she compiled her father’s story, Diaries of Graves Detachment Digger William Frampton McBeath in the years 1918 –1919 of World War One, for relatives and friends and sent copies to the Australian War Memorial and the State Library of Victoria. ...The Australian graves effort post-war occurred across three fronts: The Graves Registration Unit (GRU) at Gallipoli, the short-lived Australian Graves Detachment (AGD) and its replacement the Australian Graves Service (AGS), on the Western Front....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. ...
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.
