Anzac Anxieties: Rupture, Continuity, and Authenticity in the Commemoration of Australian War Dead at Fromelles

Abstract

The Battle of Fromelles in Northern France was launched in July 1916. There were 5533 Australian casualties and in the immediate aftermath of the battle, German burial parties buried Allied dead in unmarked pits and the whereabouts of some were forgotten. Recent archaeological and scientific work has resulted in the belated recovery and reburial of these bodies with a new, purpose-built CWGC Cemetery inaugurated in the village of Fromelles in 2010. This article explores the anxieties that the relatives experience during the exhumation and reburial of the dead. These anxieties are allayed, in part, by the unique commemorative culture that has developed over generations in Fromelles. This article will examine the tension between the impetus to preserve the authentic bond fostered between individuals and communities in Fromelles and Australia, and the opposing impetus for greater official recognition, and the investment of state resources, in the military heritage of Fromelles.

Keywords:

• World War I
• Fromelles
• mass graves
• memory
• Anzac

ORCID

Layla Renshaw http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9233-458X

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Layla Renshaw

Layla Renshaw is an associate professor in the Department of Applied and Human Sciences, Kingston University, London where she teaches forensic archaeology and anthropology. She has worked as an assistant archaeologist to the UN's International Criminal Tribunal in Kosovo and has conducted extensive field work in Spain. She is the author of Exhuming Loss: Memory, Materiality and Mass Graves of the Spanish Civil War. Her research interests include the role of archaeology in post-conflict investigations and public perceptions of forensics. She is currently writing a book on the identification of World War I soldiers on the Western Front, and the link between genetic testing and memory.