Accession Number | P03483.027 |
---|---|
Collection type | Photograph |
Object type | Black & white - Print silver gelatin |
Maker |
Unknown |
Place made | France: Picardie, Somme, Roisel |
Date made | c 1918 |
Conflict |
First World War, 1914-1918 |
Copyright |
Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain This item is in the Public Domain |
The remains of a dugout at Roisel, France, which served as the Officers Mess of the 2nd Field ...
The remains of a dugout at Roisel, France, which served as the Officers Mess of the 2nd Field Company Australian Engineers. On 15 September 1918, at about 4:00pm, Lieutenant George Knight Kerslake, 1st Field Company Australian Engineers, having just returned from England, joined Captain Frank Stanley Davidson, Captain Robert Adam Clinton MC and two Sappers (Spr) who acted as batmen for the officer, 18388 Spr James Burgess Morgan and 16245 Spr William Young, all of the 2nd Field Company Australian Engineers, for afternoon tea in the dugout. The dugout received a direct shell hit and all but Captain Clinton, receiving only minor injuries, were instantly killed. They were buried the following day at Tincourt New British Cemetery, France. 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.