Overview

During the First World War, 250 soldiers were buried behind enemy lines in unmarked mass graves on the outskirts of the village of Fromelles, Northern France. They were among several thousand Australian and British soldiers who were killed in the Battle of Fromelles on the 19th and 20th July 1916, the first action on the Western Front to involve the Australian Imperial Force. This volume describes Oxford Archaeology's contribution to a joint Australian and British government mission, under the management of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to recover the soldiers and re-bury them with full military honours in a new Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in Fromelles. Bringing together an international team of forensic and investigative professionals, Oxford Archaeology excavated and scientifically examined the remains of the soldiers and items - remnants of uniforms, insignia, and poignant mementoes of home, among them a return train ticket and a heart-shaped leather pouch - buried with them. With the full support and co-operation of the soldiers' families, this evidence was employed alongside DNA and historical sources in an attempt to identify the soldiers by name for their commemoration on headstones. Since the recovery operation began in 2009, limited information has been revealed about the project. This volume is the comprehensive account of the work. Ultimately, however, this is a story of the soldiers, their bravery and sacrifice. With contributions by: Alison Anderson, Matt Bradley, Carl Champness, Ambika Flavel, Wayne Hoban, Peter Jones, Dai Lewis, Tim Loveless, Paul Murray, Dan Poore, Lucian Pricop, Ian Scott, Mark Viner, James Walker, Roland Wessling and Richard Wright

Full Product Details

9780904220759

Table of Contents

Reviews

The archaeologists deserve the highest praise, and this report is of exemplary quality. -- Paul Stamper British Archaeology

Author Information

Dr Louise Loe is Honorary Research Associate at the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK and Head of Burials at Oxford Archaeology. She has worked on archaeological burial investigations in Britain, France and Malta, and is the co-author of Living and Dying in Southwark 1587-1831: Excavations at Cure's College Burial Ground, Park Street (2017), 'Given to the Ground' (2014), 'Remember Me To All' (2014), and Life and death in a Roman city: excavation of a Roman cemetery with a mass grave at 120-22 London Road, Gloucester (2008). Helen Webb is Project Officer in the Burials team at Oxford Archaeology and has worked on a wide variety of field and post-excavation burials projects dating from the prehistoric to the early modern periods, including St Paul's, Hammersmith and St Peter-le-Bailey, Oxford. She is a contributor to Middle Bronze Age and Roman Settlement at Manor Pit, Baston, Lincolnshire: Excavations 2002-2014 (2020) and the co-author of 'Given to the Ground' (2014) and 'Remember Me To All' (2014).

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available