In 2009, the Australian and British governments, in collaboration with French authorities, began a programme of exhumation and DNA-testing of 250 Australian soldiers from the First World War Battle of Fromelles. It was the first large-scale application of modern forensic techniques to a mass grave from the War, and thousands of potential relatives came forward to offer a sample of their DNA for matching with soldiers in the grave. It was a highly successful investigation. Over 70% of the dead were identified and the Commonwealth War Grave Commission constructed a new cemetery to rebury them. A new museum was constructed soon after, and Fromelles was transformed as a heritage site.
The Known Soldier brings this remarkable endeavour to life through interviews with relatives of soldiers who died at Fromelles and undertakes a critical assessment of how genetic testing intersects with memory and mourning. Relatives reflect on the temporal, affective, political and ethical dimensions of DNA-testing war dead, as scientific advances allow these investigations to reach further back in time. This book examines the state’s use of scientific methods in its official commemoration of war, and considers how relatives navigate, and sometimes resist, scientific methods and official narratives. The stories of individual soldiers that emerge shape the historical and political representation of the battle at key moments such as its centenary.
