Studio portrait of 3114 Private (Pte) Robert Harry Applin, 34th Battalion. Born in Hertfordshire, ...

Accession Number	P03483.001
Collection type	Photograph
Object type	Black & white - Print silver gelatin
Maker	Unknown
Date made	c 1916
Conflict	First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright	Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain This item is in the Public Domain

Accession Number

P03483.001

Collection type

Photograph

Object type

Black & white - Print silver gelatin

Maker

Unknown

Date made

c 1916

Conflict

First World War, 1914-1918

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

This item is in the Public Domain

Studio portrait of 3114 Private (Pte) Robert Harry Applin, 34th Battalion. Born in Hertfordshire, England, he emigrated to Australia at the age of 16 and settled with his family near Nyabing, WA, where he enlisted on 19 October 1916. He was killed in action on 12 October 1917, aged 21, in France and is commemorated on panel 145 of the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium. This photograph is from an Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau file. The Bureau, which commenced operation in October 1915, sought to identify, investigate and respond to enquiries made regarding the fate of Australian personnel. It investigated the majority of personnel posted as wounded and missing on official Army lists, as well as written enquiries from concerned relatives and friends. Approximately 32,000 individual case files were opened for Australian personnel who were reported as wounded or missing during the First World War. 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 responses were sent back to those who placed enquiries with the Bureau.