# One man's mystery leads to the graves of the forgotten



## diddyriddick (Jul 16, 2010)

A WORLD War I mystery that reaches a milestone this Monday in a cemetery in northern France started in Melbourne with a man named John Charles Bowden....

One man's mystery leads to the graves of the forgotten


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Jul 16, 2010)

WOW! That is amazing! What a find. Thank you for sharing Diddyriddick.


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## vikingBerserker (Jul 16, 2010)

That really is so cool. Great post!


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## Gnomey (Jul 16, 2010)

Amazing find! Thanks for sharing.


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## syscom3 (Jul 16, 2010)

Excellent find!


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## timshatz (Jul 16, 2010)

That sort of thing probably happens more often than we think of. With 10 Million dead in 4 years, there's got to be a millions of unknown graves out there.


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## Wildcat (Jul 16, 2010)




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## BombTaxi (Jul 16, 2010)

Many will simply never be found - hundreds of thousands of Commonwealth troops have been missing ever since the Somme (Frommelles was part of that campaign). Many thousands more, like those in the Verdun Ossuary, will never be identified. It's sad to think these brave men will never have a personal memorial


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## Milosh (Jul 17, 2010)

Two of the 3 of my great uncles killed in WW1 have no known grave. All 3 were brothers. One was a _boy soldier_ and 2 died less than 2 weeks apart at Vimy.


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## Maestro (Jul 17, 2010)

timshatz said:


> That sort of thing probably happens more often than we think of. With 10 Million dead in 4 years, there's got to be a millions of unknown graves out there.



Yep. And (according to the documentary "For King And Country" with Norm Christie) about 70% of known WWI graves are of unidentified soldiers, being listed simply as "A soldier of the Great War".

By the way, with the new scientific developments with DNA, has anyone ever thought about opening those "unidentified" coffins and test the bodies in them ?


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## RabidAlien (Jul 17, 2010)

Welcome home, boys.


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## BombTaxi (Jul 18, 2010)

Maestro said:


> Yep. And (according to the documentary "For King And Country" with Norm Christie) about 70% of known WWI graves are of unidentified soldiers, being listed simply as "A soldier of the Great War".
> 
> By the way, with the new scientific developments with DNA, has anyone ever thought about opening those "unidentified" coffins and test the bodies in them ?



I think the barrier is cost. I would personally love to see that done and to give all of these men a proper memorial. But the time and expense would be huge. And there would still, tragically, be many whose remains were never recovered or who were lost at sea, whose final resting place will never be known with complete certainty.


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## Lucky13 (Jul 18, 2010)

Finally, they're coming home!


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## Wildcat (Jul 19, 2010)

Here's the latest news from Fromelles - 



> Fromelles prepares to remember fallen Australians
> By Rachel Brown in Fromelles
> 
> Updated 10 hours 36 minutes ago
> ...


Fromelles prepares to remember fallen Australians - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)


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## Wayne Little (Jul 19, 2010)




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## ccheese (Aug 4, 2010)

Good post....

Charles


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## Oggie2620 (Aug 10, 2010)

This is was really good. Am going to have to go back and find out some more now!
Dee


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