Encyclopedia
Red Cross records held at the Australian War Memorial (1DRL/428)
The Memorial holds an extensive collection of Australian Red Cross Society (ARCS) administrative files and prisoner of war listings received from the German Red Cross. These records consist of alphabetically arranged lists of Australian personnel reported as 'wounded or missing' with details obtained by ARCS researchers and complementary Prisoner of war department files.
A British Red Cross Wounded and Missing Bureau was established in 1914 soon after the start of the First World War in response to enquiries from the families of missing men. It aimed to research and to inform families of the fate of wounded and missing soldiers.
The Bureau employed searchers to operate both at the front and in Britain. They searched official lists of wounded and missing, interviewed comrades of missing soldiers in hospitals and wrote to men on active service. Altogether 400,000 reports were sent to enquirers.
The Wounded and Missing Bureau of the Australian Red Cross, a subsidiary of the British organisation, was formed in Cairo in October 1915. The Australian Red Cross office in London largely used British searchers.
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