About This Unit
Australian War Memorial - Accession Number P01836.022 - Bertangles, France, 1918. Australian gravediggers, members of a war graves unit, digging graves for dead Australian soldiers in the town's cemetery located north of Amiens.
Link to war diary - https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2629476?image=1 (www.awm.gov.au)
The Australian Graves Detachment formed in March 1919 was based at Villers-Bretonneux and the surrounding area and consisted of 1,100 men under the command of former 48th Battalion officer, ecaped POW and wounded war hero Major John Eldred Mott MC and bar. - https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/137737 (/explore/people/137737)
Initially because Australians both at home and on the Western Front regarded it as a sacred duty to carry out this distressing but vital work it was intended to fill the unit with volunteers drawn from each of the five Australian divisions. However, when it was discovered many of the volunteers were due for early repatriation they were offered the opportunity of returning to their units and an early departure for home. This meant there were too few volunteers to fill the five companies of the AGD so men who had spent the least amount of time on the front were posted to the AGD.
On 14 April the men of the AGD commenced their physical and psychologically taxing work of locating, identifying and reburying Australians killed on the Western Front.
Link to Trove digitised newspaper article - AUSTRALIAN GRAVES IN FRANCE - http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article213875087 (nla.gov.au)
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