... ...Photograph: Winifred Johnson...Many of the key personnel in the London office of the Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Bureau were women from Victoria, trusted friends and acquaintances of Vera Deakin. There was Winifred Johnson, who travelled to Cairo with Vera Deakin 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’. ...Encouraged by Brookes, Vera sailed on the Arabia accompanied by her friend Winifred Johnson. A member of the Syme family of The Age newspaper fame, Winifred did not want to languish at home while three of her four brothers enlisted.
The Australian Red Cross had cooperated with its British counterpart since July 1915 in providing a central enquiry bureau in Egypt. ...
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.
