... Stanley Addison: Red Cross Searcher...Photograph: Stanley Addison in uniform.... During WW1 Le Touquet was home of the Red Cross hospital for British wounded troops.
To the right of the picture is Australian searcher Stanley Addison seated behind the wheel of his car ‘Gladys’, which he brought to Europe at his own expense. ...
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.
