Families and Friends of the First AIF

The following letter has been written by Lambis Englezos AM for publication on the FFFAIF website:

In the field of commemoration and remembrance, 2008 was a remarkable year: Jim Bourke, President of Operations Aussies Home, and his team had made a promise and they kept that promise.  The process they had  established, saw the  recent return of the last two of our  six ”missing” Vietnam service people, the mass graves at Pheasant Wood were confirmed and the HMAS Sydney was located.  Our heritage and history became very tangible.  Our ”missing” have been restored to their families, restored to their nation. There is a joint ownership, it is not blood specific. 
It has been suggested to me that the descendants are our constituents.  With the recovery work at Pheasant Wood, I would suggest that our constituents are the soldiers of Pheasant Wood.  Each of the soldiers will receive the dignity of individual reburial and hopefully, their identity.  I believe that every effort should be made to identify as many of the soldiers as possible.  
To that end, I suggest that, if  LGC Forensics don’t get viable DNA from particular soldiers, then we should go back and re-sample them before their final burial.  I ask that a full range of samples be taken, including load bearing bones, for example the femur and toe, and that those samples be sent elsewhere for testing.  We can’t be held back by a restrictive tender process, professional pride or the dollar.  We must do everything we possibly can to get viable DNA  from each set of remains.  We must maximise the chances of identification.  
Given the veracity of the German list, I had hoped that donor samples could have been taken earlier.  Once the decision was made to recover, samples could have been taken and sent over for matching, prior to the sitting of the Panel and before the soldiers are reburied.  I’m not a descendant, however, if I was, I’d rather be given the opportunity to be there for the burial of my soldier, rather than be there for the changing of a headstone. 
Maybe it has all been too hasty, too neat. The process continues, research is fluid and ongoing.  There has been a lot of speculation, perhaps misinformation, this has been amplified by what some might say is a lack of transparency and inclusiveness.   We are guessing that the majority of the 250 recoveries are Australian, especially if the pattern of recovery from the first three pits was repeated in the remaining pits. 
As was suggested, they were not all at Pheasant Wood.  The question of alternative sites is apparent.  It has been contended that there is an even bigger British site behind the Wick Salient.  If there are 25 British among the Pheasant Wood recoveries, there are as many as 306 ”missing” British  from the 19-7-16 battle.  The ”missing” of the 9-5-15 battle of Aubers Ridge are also to be considered.  
A major precedent has been set at Fromelles, there has been talk of the opening of the floodgates.  It all goes back to the original question, the moral dilemma.  Should we even be doing this at all.  I believe we should.  It is an open question.  I believe that we should find and recover our war dead.  Anonymous ground is not an adequate or appropriate grave.  Non recovery would have sent a bad message to our current serving people. 
What I saw at Pheasant Wood was certainly very grim and confirmed for me that they were not at rest. We had to recover.  We have a moral obligation, it offers dignity, hope, identity, ownership and pilgrimage.  
If our ”missing” can be found, they should be recovered. The passage of time has not diminished our obligation, our honouring of their sacrifice. They will be restored.’  
In commemoration and remembrance
………Lambis

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The Families and Friends of the First AIF applauds the joint Australian–UK decision, announced by The Hon Greg Combet AM MP and the Hon Kevan Jones MP, to conduct a full DNA testing program on the remains of Australian and British soldiers found in mass graves at Pheasant Wood (Fromelles), and for their continuing commitment to identify as many of the fallen as is possible. We also thank the Australian, UK and French governments for affording dignified individual reburials for these soldiers, buried by German soldiers following the Battle of Fromelles on 19/20 July 1916, in the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery presently under construction at Fromelles.