... Miss Brotherton from Castlemaine: Red Cross Bureau Volunteer... at the outset, Lillian Whybrow from Melbourne and later, Miss Brotherton from Castlemaine.
Anna Mary Winifred Brotherton was a stalwart of the community, described as a ‘leader of thought in Castlemaine’. Prior to the war, she was a collector of plant...On boxing day 1916, in the middle of war in Europe, 42 year-old Miss Brotherton and her niece, Miss Cherry, boarded the RMS Mooltan, purportedly to visit relatives in England.
Despite awful weather and news of nine British boats sunk on the day ...
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.
