The Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) led by Dr Tony Pollard carried out preliminary excavations at Pheasant Wood, Fromelles in May-June this year. The project confirmed the presence of the remains of World War 1 soldiers in previously undisturbed burial pits.
Photo: Dr Tony Pollard [Lambis Engelzos]
The GUARD Report is available through the Department of Defence website. To access the report click here.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has responsibility for the investigation, recovery and reburial of the remains of Australian military personnel, whereas the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and Office of War Graves are responsible for the official commemoration of Australian servicemen and women whose remains are found at battlefield sites in accordance with The Defence Instructions (General) Missing In Action Presumed Killed: Recovery Of Human Remains Of Australian Defence Force Members PERS 20-4, issued on 12 December 1996 (available on-line at http://austmia.com/DI(G)PERS20-4.htm).
As the report of the Glasgow University Archaeological Research Department (GUARD) has established the feasibility of individual recovery of soldier’s remains and that identification through DNA may be possible, Army as the investigating authority has been considering how this is to be done. To facilitate this, the Army’s Australian Fromelles Project Group has commissioned research to determine the working list of those soldiers thought to be interred at Pheasant Wood and has met with key people involved in researching the identity these soldiers.
Photo: l to r – Bruce Scates, Lambis Englezos, Sandra Playle, Tim Lycett, Tim Whitford, Jim Munro.
The meeting at the Australian Army Headquarters in Canberra on 25 November was convened by MajGen Mike O’Brien (Retd) and included Emeritus Professor Peter Dennis, The AIF Project at University of NSW at the Australian Defence Force Academy; Roger Lee, Head of the Army History Unit; Lt Col. James Brownlie, Project Manager and Ms Belinda Cole, Communications Manager; MajGen Paul Stevens (Retd) and Kathy Upton Mitchell of the Office of War Graves in the Department of Veteran’s Affairs; Craig Tibbitts, Curator Official Records, Australian War Memorial. In addition, Peter Reece and Luke Toy, advisers to the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel participated in the meeting. Key non-government attendees included FFFAIF members Lambis Englezos and Tim Whitford (Friends of the 15th Brigade), Sandra Playle and Tim Lycett (Fromelles Descendents Database project), Professor Bruce Scates, Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University and Jim Munro, Vice President of FFFAIF.
The meeting clarified that 178 Australian soldiers should be included in the working list of name of soldiers thought to be interred at Pheasant Wood. This list will be made available through next week’s web posting and relatives will be invited to register their interest for participating in DNA analysis.
*****
The Families and Friends of the First AIF thanks the Australian, UK and French governments for affording Australian and British soldiers – presently buried in mass graves at Pheasant Wood – dignified individual reburials in a new CWGC cemetery at Fromelles, and applauds Minister Snowdon and his British counterpart, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Veterans, Kevan Jones MP, for their joint decision to DNA test the remains at exhumation and use every reasonable method to attempt identification of each soldier.
