Fromelles Association

My major research into Arthur Otto Tiedeman and my contact with the Fromelles Association came in a roundabout way from my Lost In DNA weekend in Sydney 2018.

I was heading home on the train from the final day of the conference. I had had a good weekend and some ideas of what I wanted to do next, but on the train was another SAG member. He spoke to me when we were on the platform noticing my bag of goodies from the conference, we got chatting so I sat next to him on the way home so that we could continue our conversation. He was travelling all the way to Campbelltown along with me.

We discussed some of our research plans and he talked to me about one of his passions which was military research. I told him the story of Otto and where he had died. He told me about the lost soldiers of Fromelles that they were trying to identify. He also suggested contacting the war memorial to have Otto put on the Indigenous soldiers list due to his heritage. I went home very excited, and with a plan.

I looked up information about various sites where you can put links to your DNA and a blurb about your missing soldier with the intent that someone in the future might make contact to help them do an identification. I left lots of notes on these sites and wrote to the Army letting them know that I would like to assist in the identification process of Otto using DNA.

The war memorial was my next port of call. I had been in touch with them previously to get a copy of Otto's roll of honour certificate, another of my prized possessions. I had visited there in 2017 with my family. We are standing either side of the panel where Otto's name appears.

Alicia and Julie	Alicia and Paul

So now I contacted the Indigenous unit at the war memorial. I had phone calls and emails back and forth with Michael Bell of the Indigenous Unit at the Australian War memorial. After providing proof of Otto's heritage, he was listed in the Indigenous Soldiers list in November of 2018, just before Remembrance Day.

Michael sent me email that Aunty Glenda Nicolls had made an Indigenous Poppy for Otto. This was very special in itself. He also went to bat for us with LinkUp, which is how I got Otto's foster records.

http://www.glendanichollscreative.com.au/about.html

At the time I didn't really know that much about Fromelles, so I bought a lot of books and did a lot of reading, especially on the subject of the lost diggers and Lambis Englezos. But that is where I left it for a while, as I waited in hope that someone would contact me.

And contact me they did....three years later! 

They talked to me about the DNA required for identification and who would be suitable donors. They are also writing stories about each of the Diggers of Fromelles and their families, which I got involved in. Here is the link to the Fromelles Association website where you will find the stories of the Diggers and in particular the life story that I helped to write about Otto.

Otto’s story on the Fromelles website

I also helped do some research on another soldier, surname Daley. Not related to us, but also Indigenous, and because of this I was made an honorary member of the Fromelles Association as well.

Then I had contact from a Major in the Australian Army and he organised the DNA tests for us to try and identify Otto. These tests are conducted in the UK. Now we sit again waiting!

I have also spoken to Lambis Englezos via Facebook. He tells me that based on the unit that Otto was in he was unlikely to have made it far enough to have been amongst those men in the recovered mass grave and was likely lost in "No man's land" near the memorial where he is commemorated. In any case, we will wait and hope for news, so many years after the event.

Recently there was a news report about the small town in Fromelles that has a strong connections with the Diggers of Fromelles and how the children learn about them and each choose a soldier to memorialise. I wrote to them and my email was also sent on to their local historian Pierre Selliers. Pierre did up a wonderful memorial image, though we don't have any photos.

But all of this came from that one conversation with a SAG member who shared information with me. You just never know how much you can influence someone's research. Very much appreciated!! I shall have to send him an email and let him know how much he helped me....if I can just remember his name!

https://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2015/05/27/4243761.htm

https://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/44/page16_englezos