Nine More 19th July Men Identified

[spof]

More good news coming from the Identification Board


Private Leonard Broadhurst (3013) , Sydney, 55th Battalion.
Private Robert Carrington Forland (4779), Lithgow, 53rd Battalion.
Private John Robertson Forrest (3046), Liverpool, 54th Battalion.
Private John Joseph Goulding (555), Brisbane, 31st Battalion.
Private William Alexander Jamieson (2144), Cootamundra, 31st Battalion.
Private Arthur Joseph Johnson (2203), Melbourne, 29th Battalion.
Private Claude Ward (2184), Newcastle, 30th Battalion.
Private John Cyril Wynn (2485), West Maitland, 30th Battalion.
Corporal Alfred George Tuck (1252), Melbourne, 29th Battalion.

http://fffaif.org.au/?p=10498


The full statement from the Australian Minister of Defence is here http://www.minister.defence.gov.au/2012/03/31/fromelles-nine-more-world-war-i-diggers-identified/

A big Thank You to Tim and Sandra and all the other people who have worked so hard to trace relatives.

It is particularly pleasing to hear that John Goulding has been identified. In his service record is a letter from his mother after the war and it sums up beautifully, what every family of a missing man must have gone through.

[Chris_Baker]

It does not bear thinking about. Iamgine it was your son. Sends shivers down the neck.

Most interesting to see that Mrs Goulding received her son's disc from Germany. Are there other known cases of artefacts being returned from Germany among the other identified of Pheasant Wood?

[clarke]

[spof]

It does not bear thinking about. Iamgine it was your son. Sends shivers down the neck.

Most interesting to see that Mrs Goulding received her son's disc from Germany. Are there other known cases of artefacts being returned from Germany among the other identified of Pheasant Wood?

Chris

I often re-read that letter when I'm at Fromelles and it never gets any easier and it's never far from my mind on other battlefields either.

Fromn notes I took at a talk by Peter Barton a couple of years ago, the Divisional Order detailing instructions for the burials included the command that all personal effects which did not provide intelligence were to be collected and returned to HQ. These were then sent to Berlin and into the Red Cross system of Berlin - Geneva - London - Sydney/Melbourne so quite a lot of discs etc were returned. The same was done for the dead in front of the lines who could not be recovered. Here's another example (which includes but most of the ones I have seen are on the standard AIF Personal Effects form

Glen

[Auimfo]

Thanks Glen,

Yes that's right. There are quite a number of records among the Fromelles men of the Germans returning personal possessions and ID discs. They include bibles, diaries, coins, wallets, letters etc and of course the discs.

Three of these men weren't on the 'expected' working list because there was nothing in their files that suggested they might have been buried by the Germans (Forland, Forrest and Ward). Of the other six who have been on the working list from the outset, Sandra and I have had a hand in locating the descendants for three of them which is very rewarding.

A little known piece of information about John Goulding is that we believe he was related to one of the other soldiers previously identified - Allan Bennett (although we haven't found the link yet). Both families were from Holbeach England and Bennett's father's name was Henry 'Goulding' Bennett and in turn his parents were Henry Bennett and Rebecca Goulding.

Cheers,

Tim L.

[topsey1234]

Tim

How strong is the link with Holbeach, Lincolnshire for the Goulding and Bennett families? There was another Lincolnshire lad killed killed (John Swift 2/7th Warwickshire) but he was from Bourne.

Richard

Thanks Glen,

Yes that's right. There are quite a number of records among the Fromelles men of the Germans returning personal possessions and ID discs. They include bibles, diaries, coins, wallets, letters etc and of course the discs.

Three of these men weren't on the 'expected' working list because there was nothing in their files that suggested they might have been buried by the Germans (Forland, Forrest and Ward). Of the other six who have been on the working list from the outset, Sandra and I have had a hand in locating the descendants for three of them which is very rewarding.

A little known piece of information about John Goulding is that we believe he was related to one of the other soldiers previously identified - Allan Bennett (although we haven't found the link yet). Both families were from Holbeach England and Bennett's father's name was Henry 'Goulding' Bennett and in turn his parents were Henry Bennett and Rebecca Goulding.

Cheers,

Tim L.

[roel22]

Two years ago I wrote a story about the final hours of lieutenant Berrol Mendelsohn, who was KIA in the early hours of 20 july 1916. His identity disc was sent home from Berlin on 28 july 1919.

Roel

[BPJermyn]

That letter is really something else.

r

The identity disc being returned from Germany unfortunately gave his mother an inaccurate picture of her sons death - he died on the battlefield and not as a prisoner of war