Studio portrait of 2082 Private (Pte) Thomas Alfred Reginald Wright, 1st Battalion. Pte Wright ...

Studio portrait of 2082 Private (Pte) Thomas Alfred Reginald Wright, 1st Battalion. Pte Wright worked as a fireman prior to enlisting at Kangaroo Valley, NSW, on 27 April 1915. He was killed in action during the battle of Lone Pine, Gallipoli, between 6-11 August 1915, aged 28, and is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli Peninsula. His brother 3463 Corporal Frederick William Norman Wright, 2nd Battalion was also killed on 27 November 1917. 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.