The missing men of The Lee
By Mike Senior
Newsletter readers will be familiar with the story of the disastrous attack at Fromelles in northern France on 19th July 1916. The attack achieved none of its objectives – to take and hold the first and second German lines – but resulted in a terrible casualty list. The attack began at 6:00pm on 19th July and ended some fourteen hours later at 8:00am on 20th July. During that time the Australian 5th Division lost 5,500 men and the British 61st Division lost 1,550 men. The Germans (Bavarians) had lost fewer than 1,500. Among the British dead were nine men from The Lee and of those nine, seven were ‘Missing’ – they just disappeared.
The possibility of a temporary armistice to bring in the dead and wounded from No Man’s Land was turned down by the Australian Divisional Commander. Consequently, despite the courageous efforts of many soldiers on both sides to bring in their comrades, No Man’s Land remained covered with bodies. Many decomposed fragments were still there at the end of the war.
All the signs are that the Bavarians dealt with the Australian and British dead in and near their lines with due respect. Eight burial pits were dug behind the church of St John the Baptist at Fromelles adjacent to Pheasants’ Wood. The bodies were placed next to one another and the layers of bodies were separated by ground-sheets. Some 250 bodies were buried in six of the pits with two pits remaining empty.
Discrepancies
It was some years after the war that an issue emerged about the ‘Missing’ of Fromelles. The total number of the ‘Missing’ did not tally with the CWGC graves associated with Fromelles and marked “Known to God”. Up to 400 were missing without any memorial. Efforts were made by the authorities to solve the mystery, but by the late 1920s the problem had been shelved.
It was the determination of Lambis Englezos, a Greek-born Australian from Melbourne that eventually convinced the Australian and British governments that Pheasants’ Wood was probably the resting place of many of the Fromelles missing. As a result of Lambis’s evidence – aerial photographs and German and Red Cross records – the Glasgow University Archaeological Department undertook a trial dig at Pheasants’ Wood in May 2008. Skeletal remains were found and Lambis Englezos’s convictions were proved correct.
Recent progress
Just over a year later the Australian and British governments, working closely with the French authorities, agreed that the burial pits should be opened and that each skeletal remains should be re-buried in a separate plot. By September 2009, 250 sets of remains had been unearthed. Along with the human remains were hundreds of artefacts – a pipe, a fountain pen, buttons, an epaulette, a tobacco pouch, a boot, a New Testament and a number of metal uniform badges. A new cemetery is being constructed by the CWGC – the first since the end of the Second World War – on a site not far from Pheasants’ Wood. The remains will be reburied there beginning in early 2010. Every soldier will have the dignity of his own headstone – “Known To God”.
The Oxford Archaeology team have completed the washing and categorising of all 250 sets of remains and DNA samples have been collected.
The search for relatives of the Missing is now on in Australia and Britain with the aim of effecting a DNA match. This process is both costly and time-consuming and is expected to take four or five years.
Once a definite identification of a skeleton has been confirmed, the headstone in the new cemetery will be changed to give the personal details of the once ‘Missing’ soldier.
Men of The Lee
At least two sets of relatives of men missing from The Lee are providing DNA samples. It would be very special if the remains of Arnold Morris of Field End Lane and Sydney Dwight of Lee Common were identified. Both were in Capt. Ivor Stewart-Liberty’s D Company.
All the pits at Pheasants’ Wood have now been back-filled and re-seeded. The new cemetery is well-underway and is due to be officially opened on 19th July 2010. After 94 years these courageous soldiers, once labelled ‘Missing’, will have their proper and dignified resting place alongside their comrades.
By Mike Senior
Newsletter readers will be familiar with the story of the disastrous attack at Fromelles in northern France on 19th July 1916. The attack achieved none of its objectives – to take and hold the first and second German lines – but resulted in a terrible casualty list. The attack began at 6:00pm on 19th July and ended some fourteen hours later at 8:00am on 20th July. During that time the Australian 5th Division lost 5,500 men and the British 61st Division lost 1,550 men. The Germans (Bavarians) had lost fewer than 1,500. Among the British dead were nine men from The Lee and of those nine, seven were ‘Missing’ – they just disappeared.
The possibility of a temporary armistice to bring in the dead and wounded from No Man’s Land was turned down by the Australian Divisional Commander. Consequently, despite the courageous efforts of many soldiers on both sides to bring in their comrades, No Man’s Land remained covered with bodies. Many decomposed fragments were still there at the end of the war.
All the signs are that the Bavarians dealt with the Australian and British dead in and near their lines with due respect. Eight burial pits were dug behind the church of St John the Baptist at Fromelles adjacent to Pheasants’ Wood. The bodies were placed next to one another and the layers of bodies were separated by ground-sheets. Some 250 bodies were buried in six of the pits with two pits remaining empty.
Discrepancies
It was some years after the war that an issue emerged about the ‘Missing’ of Fromelles. The total number of the ‘Missing’ did not tally with the CWGC graves associated with Fromelles and marked “Known to God”. Up to 400 were missing without any memorial. Efforts were made by the authorities to solve the mystery, but by the late 1920s the problem had been shelved.
It was the determination of Lambis Englezos, a Greek-born Australian from Melbourne that eventually convinced the Australian and British governments that Pheasants’ Wood was probably the resting place of many of the Fromelles missing. As a result of Lambis’s evidence – aerial photographs and German and Red Cross records – the Glasgow University Archaeological Department undertook a trial dig at Pheasants’ Wood in May 2008. Skeletal remains were found and Lambis Englezos’s convictions were proved correct.
Recent progress
Just over a year later the Australian and British governments, working closely with the French authorities, agreed that the burial pits should be opened and that each skeletal remains should be re-buried in a separate plot. By September 2009, 250 sets of remains had been unearthed. Along with the human remains were hundreds of artefacts – a pipe, a fountain pen, buttons, an epaulette, a tobacco pouch, a boot, a New Testament and a number of metal uniform badges. A new cemetery is being constructed by the CWGC – the first since the end of the Second World War – on a site not far from Pheasants’ Wood. The remains will be reburied there beginning in early 2010. Every soldier will have the dignity of his own headstone – “Known To God”.
The Oxford Archaeology team have completed the washing and categorising of all 250 sets of remains and DNA samples have been collected.
The search for relatives of the Missing is now on in Australia and Britain with the aim of effecting a DNA match. This process is both costly and time-consuming and is expected to take four or five years.
Once a definite identification of a skeleton has been confirmed, the headstone in the new cemetery will be changed to give the personal details of the once ‘Missing’ soldier.
Men of The Lee
At least two sets of relatives of men missing from The Lee are providing DNA samples. It would be very special if the remains of Arnold Morris of Field End Lane and Sydney Dwight of Lee Common were identified. Both were in Capt. Ivor Stewart-Liberty’s D Company.
All the pits at Pheasants’ Wood have now been back-filled and re-seeded. The new cemetery is well-underway and is due to be officially opened on 19th July 2010. After 94 years these courageous soldiers, once labelled ‘Missing’, will have their proper and dignified resting place alongside their comrades.