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Date: 10 March 2011
Known to Australians as ‘their darkest day,’ the World War 1 Battle of Fromelles, France in July 1916 left 500 British and 1700 Australian soldiers dead.
Fromelles was home to mass graves filled with unidentified bodies. Many families have a blank page in their ancestors history, never knowing it was here that their relatives lost their lives.
Bournemouth University Forensic Anthropologist, Stephany Leach, has been working with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and Oxford Archaeology to excavate mass graves in Fromelles and identify the fallen.
“It must have been the most terrible thing not to know what happened to a loved one,” said Stephany. “They disappear off to war and are listed as missing, but never to know their final resting place and what actually happened to them must have been the worst possible outcome.”
250 sets of remains have been excavated. DNA samples, personal artefacts and a biological profile (age, sex, height, general health and injuries sustained during life or at the time of death) have been compiled and matched to living relatives DNA profiles and descriptions of the deceased soliders.
She continued: “To give them a marked individual grave with their name is the best possible outcome for this project, one we hoped to achieve for all the soldiers. 96 soldiers now have names on their graves and a focus for family members to travel out to, to be close to them again. We still hope to achieve this for more of the unknown soldiers we recovered from the mass graves.”
There are 42 remaining sets of human remains that could be from either army, lacking a personal identity, and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission hopes more people will come forward with information about their relatives so more positive identifications can be made through matching of DNA profiles and personal details relating to the soldier.
The bodies have now been reburied in individual graves in a new military cemetery at Fromelles. HRH Prince of Wales attended the dedication ceremony on the 94th anniversary of the battle, 19 July 2010.
A spokesperson for the CWGC said: “The opening of the new Fromelles Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery in July 2010 was a hugely important event for all those people with a connection to loved ones who died at Fromelles, but the search for more families of those British and Australian soldiers killed during the Battle of Fromelles continues.”
Next month a joint British and Australian Identification Board will reconvene in London to attempt to identify some of the remaining unknown soldiers who were recovered from the mass graves.
Getting in contact
Casualty lists of those lost at Fromelles can be viewed at www.fromelles.org. Anyone believing they may be related to a soldier who served with the British Army should contact: Post Death Administration Commemorations and Licensing, JCCC, SPVA, Imjin Barracks, Gloucester GL3 1HW, Fromelles@spva.mod.uk or 01452 712612, ext 6303/7330. Anyone believing they may be related to a soldier who served with the Australian Army should visit www.defence.gov.au/fromelles for more information or call 1800 019 090 (from within Australia) or +61 2 6266 2369 (from overseas).”
Fronsensic Simulations: Mass Grave – Temporary Mortuary
People interested in Forensic Anthropology and identifying victims recovered from mass graves can find out more about Bournemouth Unviersity’s short course ‘Forensic Simulations: Mass Grave – Temporary Mortuary’.
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