The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Studio portrait of 1626 Private (Pte) Walter Henry Chibnall, 10th Light Trench Mortar Battery. Born in Snake Valley, Vic, he was a miner at Beaufort, Victoria, before he enlisted on 15 March 1916 and embarked on HMAT Ascanius with the 1st Reinforcements of the 39th Battalion. On 27 May 1916 he was transferred to the 10th Light Trench Mortar Battery on 7 August 1916 where he was promoted to Corporal on 15 September 1917. He was killed in action at Passchendaele, Belgium, on 12 October 1917, aged 32, when he and a comrade were hit by a shell while taking shelter in a crater. He is commemorated on panel 19 of The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium. 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.
Studio portrait of 1626 Private (Pte) Walter Henry Chibnall, 10th Light Trench Mortar Battery, pictured with his son William Beresford (Billy) Chibnall. A miner of Beaufort Vic, Pte Chibnall enlisted
Studio portrait of 6530 Private (Pte) Charles Stuart Henderson, 16th Battalion. A farmer of Denmark, WA, he enlisted on 19 June 1916 and sailed from Fremantle, WA, on HMAT Suffolk with the 21st Reinfo
The original grave of 5139 Private (Pte) Ernest Leslie Knowling, 10th Battalion, in the Tel El Kebir Memorial Cemetery, Egypt. An iron moulder of Broken Hill, NSW, he enlisted on 10 February 1916 and
Studio portrait of 3114 Private (Pte) Robert Harry Applin, 34th Battalion. Born in Hertfordshire, England, he emigrated to Australia at the age of 16 and settled with his family near Nyabing, WA, wher
The original grave of 211 Private (Pte) Thomas Orton, 2nd Division Salvage Company. Pte Orton, a grocer of California Gully, Bendigo, Victoria, who enlisted on 27 February 1915 and sailed from Melbour
Studio portrait of 5129 Private (Pte) Eric Lang, 48th Battalion. A farmer of Donnybrook, WA, he enlisted on 6 January 1916 and sailed from Fremantle on HMAT Stropshire with the 16th Reinforcements on
