... He was buried in the Irish House Cemetery near the village of Kemmel, halfway between Ypres and Armentieres. Pictures of temporary graves such as this were sent to Australian families so they could see how their loved ones’ graves were marked.
In 1917, as a result of ongoing graves registration campaigning by Sir Fabian Ware and others, the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) was established to commemorate every soldier with permanent memorials or headstones, and to make no distinction between rank.
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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.
