The graves of Australian soldiers in the Compton-Chamberlayne Cemetery, Wiltshire, England, all ...

The graves of Australian soldiers in the Compton-Chamberlayne Cemetery, Wiltshire, England, all of whom died at the Fovant military hospital. A wooden cross and artificial flowers in a glass dome, mark the grave of 2075 Private (Pte) Evan Jones, a 26 year old tram conductor who was born in Merioneth, Wales. Pte Jones enlisted 26 September 1915 and sailed from Sydney with 3rd Reinforcements, on HMAT Ballarat on 16 February 1916. As a member of the 30th Battalion, he died of sickness on 8 December 1916. Two of the three additional crosses shown mark the graves of 1818 Pte Joseph Edwin Cook, of Laidley, Qld, who sailed with 2nd Reinforcements, 42nd Battalion, on HMAT Boorora from Sydney on 29 February 1916. Pte Cook died of sickness on 6 December 1916. 2450 Pte Algin Le Tisser, of Caralulup, Vic, who sailed with 5th Reinforcements, 57th Battalion, on HMAT Shropshire from Melbourne on 25 September 1916. Pte Le Tisser died of sickness on 19 December 1916. This photograph is from an Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau file. The Bureau, which commenced operation in October 1915, sought to identify, investigate and respond to enquiries made regarding the fate of Australian personnel. It investigated the majority of personnel posted as wounded and missing on official Army lists, as well as written enquiries from concerned relatives and friends. Approximately 32,000 individual case files were opened for Australian personnel who were reported as wounded or missing during the First World War. The Bureau employed searchers to operate both at the front and in Britain. They searched official lists of wounded and missing, interviewed comrades of missing soldiers in hospitals and wrote to men on active service. Altogether 400,000 responses were sent back to those who placed enquiries with the Bureau. (ROH portrait at A00612)