DNA tests bring closure for families of WWI soldiers

WORLD War I soldier Lance Corporal John Alexander Crawford’s heartbroken mother wanted to know for certain that “he is no more”.

The Adelaide man was listed as missing for more than a year before an official telegram confirmed he had in fact died in the 1916 Battle of Fromelles, the worst 24 hours of Australia’s military history.

His widowed mother Christina Crawford asked the army for a death certificate and any of his belongings.

“Why I desire this is on account of the long suspense I have been held in. And also to satisfy myself that he is no more,” she wrote in October 1917. The death certificate arrived the next month.

More than a century later, Lance Corporal Crawford and six other Australian soldiers killed at Fromelles will finally get headstones bearing their names at their final resting place in France.

They are among 166 Australian soldiers from the 250 found buried in mass graves a decade ago who have now been identified by name through the use of DNA technology, forensic science and historical data.

Rob Crawford was contacted “out of the blue” two years ago, asking if he would provide a DNA sample to help identify a great uncle he knew nothing about. The news of Lance Corporal Crawford’s formal identification has had a profound effect on the 75-year-old.

“It’s changed my life, it really has,” Mr Crawford said after the official announcement this week. “The letters that she sent to the army are tear-jerking,” he said. “It’s grief – ‘my poor son’s been killed’.”