The ‘Lost Diggers of Fromelles’: identifying and caring for the dead of the First World War
Using DNA to identify the remains those long dead is about more than just the historical record; it can also be seen as an ‘act of care ’, writes Jackie Leach Scully of Newcastle University. Scully contacted dozens of individuals who donated DNA in an effort to identify the remains of Australian soldiers killed during the battle of Fromelles in 1916. As she writes in the current issue of New Genetics and Society : “When they outlined their reasons for taking