Studio portrait of 952 Private (Pte) Standish Lockhardt Matheison 'Stanley' O'Grady, C Company, ...

Studio portrait of 952 Private (Pte) Standish Lockhardt Matheison 'Stanley' O'Grady, C Company, 18th Battalion. Pte O'Grady enlisted on 24 February 1915, and embarked from Sydney for service overseas aboard HMAT Ceramic on 25 June 1915. The handwritten note beneath the portrait indicates Pte O'Grady was listed as missing the same year, on 22 August 1915. His physical appearance is described: 'mid-brown, grey eyes, round face, clean shaven.' Pte O'Grady was later officially listed as killed in action on 22 August 1915, aged 19. He is commemorated at the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli. 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.