Families and Friends of the First AIF

The Australian Army Fromelles Project update released on 24 August 2009 reports on progress to date and the Media Day held at Pheasant Wood recently.

Photo: Media observing archaeologists at work. [Australian Army]

The update also reports that:
a significant amount of the stored DNA samples, taken from remains during the period of the pilot project, were dispatched to LGC Forensics during the week and have arrived at Teddington, London.

To read the report in full visit The Australian Army Fromelles Project – Don’t forget me cobber by clicking here.

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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.

Media reports on Fromelles continue:

Fromelles report unearth’s conflicting views: Richard Wright Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, University of Sydney. The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 August 2009.

Fromelles dig ignores hurtful attack: The Australian, 21 August 2009.

Fromelles – Recovering Overseas Australia’s Missing supports recovery: Australia.TO News.

Relics from World War 1 to help identify buried soldiers: The Courier Mail, 21 August 2009.

Fromelles DNA tests set to start in Sept: WA today.com, 20 August 2009.

Search for relatives of Private buried in First World War mass grave: Rutland & Stamford Mercury, 21 August 2009.

Plea to WWI families: The Bendigo Advertiser, 22 August 2009.

Photo: Oxford Archaeologists at work at Pheasant Wood [Tim Loveless OA]

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TheFamilies and Friends of the First AIFapplauds 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.

Following the Fromelles Project being the subject of a number of press articles as reported in RECENT NEWS items Fromelles in news and Archaeological Debate, the Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, The Hon. Greg Combet AM MP made a detailed Ministerial Statement to the Australian Parliament’s House of Representatives on Wednesday 19 August.  The statement covered the governance arrangements of the project, the progress with excavation, the approach to water management issues and details of the DNA testing processes, in particular that it includes testing of load bearing  bones as well as other bones such as hands and teeth. The Minister also outlined the arrangements for reinterment and commemoration as well as costs. The Minister also advised that today was an open day for the media at the Fromelles site. His statement was followed by a response by the Shadow Minister for Veteran’s Affairs, Mrs Louise Markus MP. Their full statements are recorded in the draft Hansard transcript for 19 August pages 66 to 71 and provide considerable detail of the background to the Fromelles Project as well as its current status.  Both speakers acknowledged the contribution of Lambis Englezos AM in the identification of the Pheasant Wood site as likely to contain the remains of Australian and British soldiers and also recognised the contributions of others in this process. 

Several media reports draw on the Ministerial statement. Click on the following links:

Combet defends Fromelles exhumations: Max Blenkin, The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 August

Fromelles remains ‘mostly Diggers’: Patrick Walters, The Australian, 20 August

Some of these reports refer to comments attributed to Johan Vandewalle.  Johan is well known to many FFFAIF members and visitors to the Western Front battlefields, particularly for his hospitality at his ANZAC Rest cafe at Polygon Wood. Johan was a key person in the recovery of the 5 Australian soldiers at Zonnebecke and the subsequent identification of 3 of them with the aid of DNA analysis. Johan is a civil engineer by profession who has developed his expertise in tunnelling and is a co-author of the authoritative book Beneath Flanders Fields: The Tunnellers’ War 1914-1918 along with British Historian Peter Barton and Professor Peter Doyle, Visiting Professor in Geosciences at University College London. His co-authors are also the co-secretaties to the British All-party Parliamentary War Graves and Battlefields Heritage Group.

Photo: Johan Vandewalle  and Lambis Engelzos

Other media reports relating to Fromelles include:

WWI dig finds remains of Australian soldiers: AFP, 9News, 20 August

Graves tell story of the forgotten battle of Fromelles: Sam Jones, The Guardian, 20 August 

France: New Light on 1916 Battle: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, 20 August 

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TheFamilies and Friends of the First AIFapplauds 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.

The archaeological techniques being employed by Oxford Archaeology at the Pheasant Wood, Fromelles site for the exhumation of the remains of World War 1 soldiers buried by the German Army has recently been criticised in the Australian Press. This has prompted Richard Wright, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology from Sydney University to comment from first hand experience on the techniques being used by Oxford Archaeology.

Photo: Air Commodore Steve Martin, Pheasant Wood May 2009 [Chris Munro]

The Australian newspaper carried this report, written by Leigh Dayton, on Tuesday 18 August:
A WORLD expert on forensic archeology says verbal attacks on a British team excavating the World War I burial site at Fromelles in France are unfounded.

Richard Wright, a senior forensic adviser to the group, Oxford Archaeology, headed groups that located and excavated mass graves in the former Yugoslavia and graves of victims of the Nazi Holocaust in Ukraine.

The Sydney University emeritus professor said claims yesterday in Fairfax newspapers that methods used by Oxford Archaeology were a “nightmare” and “wickedness” were untrue and showed complete ignorance of basic archaeological procedures.

“My view is that the ‘nightmare’ and the ‘wickedness’ rest not with Oxford Archaeology, but with a reporter that furthers untruths,” Professor Wright told The Australian. “These disturb both relatives of the dead and the stakeholders in the Fromelles project.”

Oxford Archaeology won the contract to recover the remains of up to 400 Australian and British soldiers killed during the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916. There has been speculation that Fairfax’s negative coverage stems from one of the two failed bidders, one in Glasgow and the other in Birmingham.

Greg Combet, Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, acknowledged the reports, saying: “I am aware of some criticism of excavation measures and water management at the site at Fromelles, which has appeared in media reports. I am advised that such claims are untrue.”

The key allegation is that Oxford Archaeology has compromised the project by “going deep into the centre of graves instead of working meticulously layer by layer”.

The debate on archaeological methods has continued with a further article in the Fairfax Press by Paola Totaro on Wednesday 19 August.  The article in The Sydney Morning Herald asserts that there is “mounting controversy about the way the men’s remains have been excavated as well as the tender process won by the private company, Oxford Archaeology.”

However, the article cites Air Commodore Steve Martin, the Head of Australian Defence Staff in London as saying that concerns raised with the British Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary War Graves and Battlefield Heritage Group had come from someone ”who had not been on the site since work began” in May earlier this year.

The report also includes comments from Dr Tony Pollard of Director of the Glasgow University’s Centre for Battlefield Archaeology who led the Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) team for the original evaluation dig in 2007, that there is ”a tremendous amount of confusion about what is happening and we really need more transparency”.

Read The Sydney Morning Herald article by clicking here.

The latest progress reports on the fieldwork as part of the exhumation process are available on the Remembering Fromelles website for 10 August and 3 August and the Australian Army Fromelles website for 17 Augustand can be accessed by clicking on the following links.  These give some insights into the archaeological techniques being used as well as the progress.

Project update – 3 August

10 August: Oxford Archaeology’s Louise Loe reports on progress in the field  

17 August Fromelles Project Update

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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.

Media reports claim that the ability to identify the remains of the British and Australian soldiers buried at Pheasant Wood near Fromelles is being compromised by the timetable to lift all of the remains by the end of next month and by the techniques used.  European Correspondent for the Fairfax press, Paolo Totaro has reported comments attributed to British Historian Peter Barton and Belgium battlefields expert Johan Vanderwalle as being concerned that best practice archaeological procedures are not being followed.  Click on the following links to read more details in the Melbourne Age, Brisbane Times or The Sydney Morning Herald.

Photo: Rising Sun badge from Pheasant Wood excavation site [Time Loveless Oxford Archaeology]

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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.