The original grave of 5139 Private (Pte) Ernest Leslie Knowling, 10th Battalion, in the Tel El ...

The original grave of 5139 Private (Pte) Ernest Leslie Knowling, 10th Battalion, in the Tel El Kebir Memorial Cemetery, Egypt. An iron moulder of Broken Hill, NSW, he enlisted on 10 February 1916 and sailed from Adelaide on HMAT Stropshire with the 16th Reinforcements on 25 March 1916. He died from meningitis on 27 May 1916, aged 21. 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.