Informal portrait of 171 Private (Pte) Frederick Richardson, 3rd Battalion. Pte Richardson was ...

Informal portrait of 171 Private (Pte) Frederick Richardson, 3rd Battalion. Pte Richardson was born at Leytonstone, England and migrated to Australia as an adult. He was a sailor living at West Maitland, NSW, and enlisted on 17 August 1914 and sailed with A Company on 20 October 1915 aboard HMAT Euripides. He was killed in action during the battle of Lone Pine, Gallipoli, between 7-12 August 1915, aged 28. 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.