No, the AIF never had a policy of keeping brothers out of the same unit. In fact it seemed to be quite acceptable to have them serving together, to the extent that you could often successfully request for a brother in another unit to be transferred into your own.

By way of example, in one infantry battalion I’ve been researching, I’ve found over 70 sets of brothers.

Regards,
Craig Tibbitts (AWM)

would you be able to tell me if the AIF ever instituted a policy of not allowing brothers to serve in the same units, to avoid them being in the same battle and all being killed at the same time? I have a feeling I’ve read this but haven’t been able to find evidence of it anywhere.

I’ve scanned the messages on this board, and it does appear it wasn’t a policy, if three brothers were killed at Passchendale in 1917.

Very grateful for your advice,

Joanne van Os

I am researching to write a book about Theo, William and George. I have gathered some birth and death certificates but want to find some details of the death of the father and the birth location of Theo. Any help would be appreciated.

I feel almost selfish now after having read many of the emails on this site. I have been trying to find the resting place of my great uncle Cpl William Edmond Finn, 2591 (4th Battalion), of Bungulla (Tenterfield). Whilst he had three other brothers enlist in the AIF, William was the only one to pay the ultimate price, killed in action in France in April 1918. Another brother, Martin Richard, (56th Battalion) was wounded in France in 1917 but survived the war.

As with so many other young men who died on the Western Front, William has no known grave site to mark the place of his death / burial and has only a mention on the memorial at Villers-Brettoneux. The curious thing about his burial is that on his military records held by the AWM / National Archive, William’s identity discs were recovered and that raises the question that if his identity discs were handed in then there must have been a place where they were found and if so, there should be a record of the ‘place’, and yet official records state that there is no such record. However, I also found in his records a reference to a burial for William, near Strazeele Stn (presumably station?) and what appears to be some map coordinates……surely some kind of effort could be made by the War Graves Commission or even the AWM / Commonwealth Government / Dept of Veterans Affairs to find this specific location ? It would mean so very much to his family……still after all those years.

The same situation might exist for a number of other ‘missing’ servicemen and their last resting place on the Western Front?

Fingers crossed.

AWM and National Archives do a wonderful job on recording and documenting and this website is great. Please keep it up, Craig.

Thanks.

Regards
Jim Kelton