... ...Missing in Action...Along with thousands of others his body was never recovered. He was reported as “missing in action”....Families might read in the newspaper that their loved one was classified as “missing in action”.
Amongst the military, soldiers knew that “missing in action” meant the person was probably dead. But few people in Australia in 1915 comprehended how suddenly and brutally bodies could be destroyed by 20th century mechanised warfare.
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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.
