Arabic version: تحديد هويات أحد عشر جندياً أسترالياً من الحرب العالمية الأولى

According to ABC News, eleven Australian soldiers killed in World War I have been formally identified for the first time. The men had long been commemorated as unknown soldiers. Their identities were established through historical research, archaeological investigations and DNA analysis, with assistance from descendants, French authorities and independent researchers.

The identified men served in Australian Imperial Force battalions, machine-gun and field-ambulance units. They are Private Roy Hawkins; Sergeant Charles Henry Nicholls; Lieutenant Howard Victor Morey; Lieutenant John Maher Lyons MC, MM, MSM; Lieutenant Andrew Anderson; Second Lieutenant James Albert McMichael; Private Thomas Easton; Corporal Harry Maitland Whiteoak; Private George Laban Lupson; Private James Campbell; and Lance Corporal Alexander Joseph Jack.

The federal government announced the identities for Remembrance Day, 108 years after the Armistice was signed to end the conflict. Defence’s Unrecovered War Casualties — Army team, the Office of Australian War Graves and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission were involved in the work.

Anderson, 23, was killed in action on September 20, 1917, during the Battle of Menin Road near Ypres, Belgium. Fellow soldiers buried him near Westhoek, according to an eyewitness account. In March 1919, remains recovered from almost the same location were reinterred at Hooge Crater Cemetery. A grave record noted “Anderson on shirt”, and an independent researcher submitted a possible connection in 2020. Investigators later established an evidentiary link, allowing his headstone to be replaced 109 years after his death.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said Anderson was his great-uncle and described the identification as profoundly meaningful for his family. Veterans’ Affairs Minister Matt Keogh said the work would provide long-awaited answers for families who had experienced generations of uncertainty.