Portrait of 4125 Private (Pte) Edward Chichele Giles (left), of Queens Park, WA, and 4128 Pte ...

Portrait of 4125 Private (Pte) Edward Chichele Giles (left), of Queens Park, WA, and 4128 Pte James William Harrington, of Maylands, WA. Privates Giles and Harrington served together in a militia unit then enlisted on 4 February 1916 and sailed from Perth, WA, with the 10th Reinforcements, 28th Battalion on HMAT Ulysses on 1 April 1916. Both were killed in action at Pozieres on 29 July 1916. Pte Harrington was aged 20 years. According to his records Pte Giles was aged 16 years, (he put his age up when he enlisted). They have no known graves and are commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France. This photograph was part of an Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau file, along with the accompanying letter from the men's mothers requesting information on their fate. 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. (Single portrait held at H06119)