Search on to find South Australian families of WWI soldiers identified from French photographic collection

THE search is on to find the South Australian families of WWI soldiers identified from a collection of photographs described as one of the most important first world war discoveries ever made.

Back Row Private Lindsay Miller (left), Lance Corporal Charles Henry Bobridge (right), Front Row Sgt Edward Albert Bobridge (right). Photo credit: Kerry Stokes Collection.

THEY are the South Australian soldiers time would have forgotten had it not been for French photographers with a passion for documenting our fighting forces.

Corporal Robert Chaffey Stuart, the Bobridge brothers and Truro Private Lindsay Miller are among dozens of SA’s “Lost Diggers” whose family ties are no longer known.

The search is on to find the families of soldiers identified from a collection of photographs described as one of the most important WWI discoveries ever made.

“It’s a treasure trove. It’s previously unknown, candid images of troops just out of the line,” Governor-General Peter Cosgrove said.

Journalist and author of The Lost Diggers, Ross Coulthart, and curators at the Australian War Memorial have been working for three years to identify the haunting images of unnamed WWI Australian and Allied soldiers in nearly 4000 glass plates photographs.

The photographs were taken by French husband-and-wife team, Louis and Antoinette Thuillier, in the French town of Vignacourt, and stayed hidden for nearly a century.

To date, the family of Frank Aitchison, from Adelaide, is the only SA family to have been positively connected with an image from the collection.

The painstaking investigation by Coulthart, who unearthed the glass plate photographs in a metal chest in a dusty attic in a French farmhouse, has subsequently identified the images of a number of SA soldiers.

The family names identified so far include Bobridge, Miller, Hewitt, Mace, Hodgens, Murray and Stuart. Their names are known but their living family members remain a mystery.

“Sadly, these guys either didn’t return from war or they didn’t return to South Australia,’’ said Coulthart.

“It would be beautiful to bring their families back in touch with these men.”

What has been discovered about Corporal Robert Chaffey Stuart MSM is that he was a labourer from Naracoorte. He embarked with the 12th Battalion in December 1915.

In January 1919 he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal and he returned to Australian in May 1919. His next of kin was listed as his mother, Mrs May Caroline Neilson, of Naracoorte. He was discharged in December, 1919. A letter on the service file records that his mother changed address in June 1919 to Rowett Street in Kapunda.

“If you are related to or know anything about the Stuart family — any of these families — I’d be delighted to hear from you,’’ Coulthart said.

To view the 800 glass plate photographs in the Australian War Memorial, visit The Lost Diggers at www.awm.gov.au/collection/photographs/vignacourt/

Almost 500 SA soldiers died in Gallipoli

SOUTH Australia sent its fair share of soldiers to the battlefields of World War I — more than 6000 soldiers headed from our state to serve 100 years ago.

At least 497 men from SA were killed in action at Gallipoli, while hundreds more survived, only to be killed on the Western Front.

There is no definitive list of South Australian killed as a result of the Gallipoli campaign.

The Advertiser’s The Story of Gallipoli magazine, published on Saturday, led to unlisted names being submitted by the public. This included Albert Frederick Binning, 29, who died as a result of wounds on May 17, 1915, in Cairo, Egypt.

Originally published as Search on to find South Australian families of WWI soldiers identified from French photographic collection