Excavating the War Dead

Using artefacts as sources to identify dead soldiers

1. The Battle of Fromelles
 •The Battle of Fromelles: 19th and 20th
July 1916

•British and Australian soldiers fought

the Germans over a 4km stretch of
the Western Front around the Sugar
Loaf

•Un-necessary battle with a plan

based on incorrect information

•12 hour battle with many casualties

•Australians:
1,780 dead, 3,753 wounded or
missing

•British:
Formation
MenHidden
of the
Map
of
German
British
showing rdlocation
Australian,
53defences
battalion
British
on
ofand
minutes
the
Fromelles
German
Sugar
before
Loaf
troops
the 503 dead, 1,044 wounded or missing
around the
battle
Sugar Loaf
•‘The worst day in Australian Military
History’
2. The Fromelles Project
 • Battlefields were searched after
the war so that the bodies of lost
soldiers could be buried in
cemeteries built by the
Commonwealth War Graves
Commission (CWGC)

• Not always easy to locate lost

soldiers due to the nature of trench
warfare in WW1

• A note found in German war

archives mentioned the burial of
225-400 men in mass graves near
Pheasant Wood not far from the
Fromelles battlefield

• Work began in 2009 excavating

Excavation
Commonwealth
Map
German
showing
propaganda
of location
theWar
Pheasant
Graves
of
postcard
mass
Wood
Commission
grave
showing
burial
pitsdead
pits
at
Cemeteries
Pheasant
began
Britishin
eight 10m long, 1.5m wide
weresoldiers
builtWood
to commemorate
nextnear
to
2009
Pheasant
Fromelles
theWood
war dead
trenches next to Pheasant Wood
not far from the Fromelles
battlefield
 Gentle handling of a buckle from an
Initial excavation with heavy machinery Australian uniform

Careful examination of every Archaeologists wearing protective clothing

piece of evidence while excavating ‘in-situ’ remains by hand
 3. Enquiry
How were artefacts (objects) found in the graves used to identify the soldiers buried at
Fromelles?

Look at each artefact and try to work out:

• What is it?
• What was it used for?
• Is it from a military uniform or is it a personal item?
• Could it be used to determine whether the soldier was Australian or British?
• Does it provide clues that might help to identify and name an individual soldier?

If you don’t think the artefact can tell you any of these things then try to think of
another way that the bodies at Fromelles might be identified.
 Source 1
What can this item can tell us?

• It tells us that the body it was found

with was likely to be an Australian
soldier.

• It is a personal item which does not tell

us the identity of the soldier but it does
tell us about his experience of
travelling from Fremantle to Perth by
train which was the departure point for
warships heading to France.
Second-class return train ticket. Fremantle to Perth

• The soldier never came home and the

return section of the ticket remained
unused.
 Source 2
What can this item tell us?

• The medallion shows the AIF logo

of the Australian Imperial Force – a
voluntary division of the Australian
army.

• Other decorations include a place

name: ‘Shire of Alberton’ and two
dates, 1914 and 1916 written
around a horseshoe – a symbol of
good luck.

• Perhaps there is a record of people

Shire of Alberton medallion who received this type of
medallion which could identify its
owner.
 Source 3
What can this item tell us?

• Australian uniform included three of

these badges – one large one on the
side of the hat and two smaller
badges (one on each side of the
collar).
Corroded Rising Sun collar badge
• The body this was found with was
almost certainly an Australian soldier

• It can not tell us the identity of the

soldier as it is a standard part of
uniform, common to the majority of
excavated Australian soldiers at
Private Roy Goldsbrough, Australian Army, fought on Fromelles
the Somme to the south of Fromelles. Rising Sun
Intact surviving example
badges can be seen on his hat and collar
 Source 4
What can this item tell us?

• Engraving on the lid says ‘Sherwood

& Co. London 1916’ – a company that
made pocketwatches

• It was common for officers to keep a

pocketwatch in a chest pocket so the
remains it was found with might
belong to a British officer

• It might be possible to trace the

names of British officers who fought
Pocketwatch at Fromelles and narrow down the
identity of the soldier, although
more forensic evidence might help in
making an accurate identification
 Source 5
What can this item tell us?

• The owner of this purse might have

fought in the campaigns around
modern-day Turkey during WW1 – it
is known that some Australians who
fought at Fromelles had experienced
the conflict at Gallipoli earlier in the
war.

• Would it be possible to search

military records for the names of
Location
Leather
mappurse
showing
and leather
Gallipolifragment
in Turkeywith
– part
8 of
soldiers who fought in both areas to
the Ottoman
Ottoman
Empire
coins
during WW1
narrow down the identity of the dead
soldier?
4. Identifying the dead
 • 250 sets of human remains and 6,200
artefacts found in the grave pits at
Pheasant Wood

• Thorough inspection of every inch of

excavated ground, both in the trench
and on the spoil heaps

• Assemblages of remains and artefacts

sent to the lab for cleaning, inspection
and analysis

• All of this work was essential so that

the next phase of the project could
Soil
Artefacts
Remains
Careful
in therecovery
from
of
spoil
individuals
the
heaps
and
gravewas
recording
and
pits – individually
given
their of
artefacts
a second
every begin – the identification of dead
investigation
were kept bagged
together
piece
to ensure
ofand
for
evidence
nothing
analysis
labelledwasin the
missed
lab soldiers
 • Human remains and artefacts
provided only a starting point in
identifying bodies

• Certain items could tell you little more

than the nationality of the dead
soldier or to which army the soldier
belonged

• DNA samples were taken from the

bones and teeth of dead soldiers to
create unique genetic profiles for each
Officer ‘s pocketwatch – Rising Sun badge – only body
interpreted as belonging found with the bodies of
to Fromelles Project DNA
British soldiers Laboratory
Australian soldiers
Part of the list of British soldiers who might be buried • DNA ‘cheek-swab’ testing kits were
DNA molecule – takes a long time to break made available to living relatives of
at Pheasant Wood
down and contains genetic material that is
(http://www.cwgc.org/fromelles/?page=english/the-
soldiers who fought at Fromelles so
‘Cheek-swab’
passed DNA testing
down through kit
families that DNA matches could be found
project/casualty_lists)
 • Tim Whitford researched the names of
soldiers who received the Shire of Alberton
Medallion in WW1

• The Yarram War Memorial contains the

names of 74 soldiers who died in WW1, 4
of whom fought at Fromelles - including
Whitford’s Great Uncle.

• Corporal David Frederick Livingston did not

receive a medallion
(Left to right) Lambis Englezos: key person in
• Private Isaac James Lear did have a
identifying the location of Pheasant Wood graves
Pheasant Wood Cemetery, Fromelles, N France medallion with his initials on the back – the
Tim Whitford: researched his Great Uncle’s
Private Henry
involvement Victor
in the battle Willis
of Fromelles one found at Fromelles had no initials
Ward Selby: his Grandfather also fought at Fromelles
• Private Herbert Gilfoy never present at
Pheasant Wood – died in Calais

• Private Henry Victor Willis, the Great Uncle

Location map of Yarram, (The Shire of Alberton of Tim Whitford was found to be the likely
region is now called South Gippsland) owner of the Medallion found at Fromelles
The Yarram War Memorial, notice the Rising
Sun emblem over the inscription • Henry Victor Willis was buried under a
named headstone at the Pheasant Wood
Tim Whitford and his daughter with a photo of his Great Uncle cemetery in 2010
Inscription
Left: intact exampleonof
at the
thethe grave
Shire ofWood
Pheasant Henrysite
Victor
Alberton Willis
Medallion
 • The Fromelles project highlights the
importance that the study of
Archaeology can play when looking
at periods of the past that might, at
first, seem too recent.

• With the 100 year anniversary of

the start of WW1 in 2014, issues
such as remembrance and
commemoration of the war dead
are currently at the forefront of
WW1 ‘conflict archaeology’

• The visitor book at the Fromelles

Cemetery shows how much the
Fromelles Project means to the
families and friends of soldiers who
died in service of their countries
VisitorForget
‘Don’t
Memorialbook atMe
statue the Fromelles
atCobber’
Fromelles ‘Pheasant
re-tells Wood’
commemorating
the story of
the Cemetery
Australian
Battle ofwar
Fromelles
dead
 5. Identification Activity
This is the body of a German soldier found on the Somme
battlefield by the No Man’s Land Project at Serre in
northern France in 2003. Eventually he was identified as
Jakob Hones of 7 Kompanie, German Reserve Korps.

From the information learned from the Fromelles Project,

how do you think Jakob Hones was identified?

You can use these websites to help you:

http://www.fylde.demon.co.uk/fraser.htm
http://www.redtwo.plus.com/nml/p_serre.htm

•How might the objects shown on the next slide have

helped to identify Hones?
What do his personal items tell us about him?
What should happen to the body after excavation?
 Personal items: lid of a polish jar, comb, nail
Military Identity Disc
cleaner and mirror