Welcome to the official website of the
Families and Friends of the First AIF
Coming soon: After three years, the FFFAIF website is being refreshed and upgraded. All of the current information will still be available along with some new features. Watch this space…………………..
There has been a slight delay to the commissioning of the upgraded website due to a structural failure in the web design team – back soon!
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Sydney Members – a date for your diary – Tour of Victoria Barracks Sydney and presentation – Sunday 20 March 2011. 10:30am – 3:00pm. More details available here.
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Throughout 2010 this website has been updated on a regular basis. The number of times the www.fffaif.org.au site has been visited now exceeds 169,000 since the launch on Australia Day 2008 – thanks for your support and interest. The site now has 414 postings.
All of these postings continue to be available on-line and it is easy to search this resource of both recent and historical events. To do so, use the Search Field located on the top right of web page (near the Members’ Area tab). Simply enter the topic you are searching for in the search field at the top of the screen and click. Alternatively use the PAST NEWS drop down menu, located below the FFFAIF Photo strip, on the right hand side of the page.
Over the Christmas Season the web manager will take a break from website postings – we hope you will enjoy taking some time to trawl through past postings. We will be back in time for our 3rd Anniversary on Australia Day 2011 – or sooner if there is ‘breaking news’.
Please direct all enquiries to fffaif@yahoo.com.au until February 2011.
Photo: Site of 1914 Khaki Chums Christmas Truce
[FFFAIF 2010 Tour Collection]
During the festive season enjoy the ‘Peace on Earth’ that the men of the First AIF fought to preserve.
Merry Christmas
and
Happy New Year
from the Families and Friends of the First AIF
Lest We Forget
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Photo: Members of The Connecting Spirits Tour visit Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery [Julie Reece]
Members of the South Australian Connecting Spirits Project recently visited the CWGC Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery as part of their 2010 Commemorative Tour. To find out more about the project and follow the tour see RECENT NEWS Item: Connecting Spirits 2010
Johan Vanderwalle, co-author of Beneath Flanders Fields – The Tunneller’s War, will be speaking at The Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne on Monday 13th December. For more details see RECENT NEWS Item: Brothers In Arms
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This year marks the 75th Anniversary of the death of one of Australia’s most famous aviators – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. Many recognize him as the face on the A$20 note but few know of his time in the AIF as one of the original Anzac Diggers. Read more about his life and achievments in RECENT NEWS Item: Smithy’s Anniversary.
Photo: Charles Kingsford Smith (left) 26 April 1915
Broadmeadows Victoria
[AWM DA08452]
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The 2010 Annual General Meeting of the Families and Friends of the First AIF was held on Saturday 9th October in Dubbo, New South Wales. The 2010-2011 Committee was elected at the meeting.
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Do you have information relating to the 13th Field Artillery Brigade or the 14th Machine Gun Company (5th Division) AIF? Assistance is being sort in compiling their Unit Histories. For more details on the project read RECENT NEWS Item: Unit History help
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Members of The Families and Friends of the First AIF recently returned from the inaugural Western Front Commemorative Tour from 14th to 27th July 2010. Find more about the Tour in RECENT NEWS Item: FFFAIF WF Tour Report
Photo: FFFAIF Tour Group at Australian National Memorial,
Villers-Bretonneux [Heather Ford]
During the Tour members attended the Dedication and Burial at Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery on 19th July 2010. Read more about the commemorations in RECENT NEWS Item: Fromelles’ Dedication.
Photo: HRH Prince Charles and The Demassiet Family
[Carole Laignel]
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On 1st July 2010 the Commonwealth War Graves Commission will release its latest publication – Remembering Fromelles.
To find out more about the book and how to obtain your copy see RECENT NEWS Item Remembering Fromelles.
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More Fromelles Soldiers’ names
Photo: 3047 Private Robert Arthur Dewar, 55th Battalion
The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel, Alan Griffin, on Saturday 8 May announced the names of a further 19 soldiers who were recently reburied in Fromelles, France. See RECENT NEWS Item: More Fromelles names for the list of names and links to information on some of the 94 Australian soldiers identified.
Information relating to Fromelles Cemetery Layout, Soldiers names and re-burials
If you are looking for information on:
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the layout of the new CWGC Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery showing the burial positions for the 75 named and 128 un-named Australians, 3 un-named British and remaining 44 unidentified soldiers and some analysis of accounting for the “unaccounted for” soldiers killed in the battle of Fromelles;
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stories, profiles and information on some of the identified soldiers;
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links to media reports related to the identification of Soldiers whose remains were recovered from the burial pits at Pheasant Wood;
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The Joint Identification Board, co-chaired by Major General Mike O’Brien from the Australian Army, and Air Commodore Chris Bray from the Royal Air Force,
these have been relocated to RECENT NEWS Item: Fromelles ID & graves
If you are looking for information relating to the reburial of the remains of soldiers recovered from the burial pits at Pheasant Wood in the new CWGC Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery, these have been relocated to RECENT NEWS Item: Fromelles re-burials
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LOOK FOR UPDATES AND ADD www.fffaif.org.au TO YOUR HOME PAGE
To facilitate regular checking of the www.fffaif.org.au web site you may want to add this web-site to your existing Home page.
If you are using Internet Explorer, select the Tools menu in the Menu bar at the top of the screen. Select the Internet Options item and the Internet Options dialogue box will open. On the General tab in the Home page section, either click on the Use current button or in the box above it type www.fffaif.org.au and press the Enter key so that this address is on a new line, then click the Apply button and then OK. The next time the browser is started, this website will automically be loaded along with your exisitng Home page locations.
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If you wish to contact the Families and Friends of the First AIF about the website please click here.
Interested in becoming a member of the Families and Friends of the First AIF? Click here for details.
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Did you know that all the RECENT NEWS items which have been posted on the website are still available for you to read? They are stored under Past News and can be accessed by either:
Using the Search Field located on the top right of web page (near the Member’s Area tab). Simply enter the topic you are searching for in the search field at the top of the screen and click enter.
OR
By using the PAST NEWS drop down menu, located below the FFFAIF Photo strip, on the right hand side of this page.
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2 December 1914 First Australian military aircraft despatched to war.
3 December 1914 First AIF disembarked in Egypt
3 December 1915 Siege of Kut begins in Mesopotamia.
7 December 1915 Evacuation of ANZAC troops from Gallipoli begins.
9 December 1917 Jerusalem occupied by the Desert Mounted Corps.
12 December 1917 HMAS Australia damaged in a collision with HMS Repulse.
13 December 1915 Australian Light Horse fight at Um Rakham.
20 December 1915 Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.
20 December 1917 Second conscription referendum held in Australia.
21 December 1916 Australian Light Horse capture El Arish
23 December 1916 Battle of Magdhaba, northern Sinai
31 December 1914 The second convoy of the First AIF departed Albany Western Australia.
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Privacy Policy:
You may view the website for private purposes only. Some of the images are owned by third parties and are protected by their copyright. They are reproduced on this site with permission. In cases where it has been difficult to determine the original owner copyright may have unknowingly been infringed – if this is the case we invite the owners to contact the webmaster.
General terms and conditions of use:
This website is provided for your personal and non-commercial use only. Material from the site may be used for your own non-commercial use when the source of the material is acknowledged correctly. Any other use of materials from this site is not permitted without permission of the FFFAIF Inc.
Links to Other Sites:
The links to other www addresses are provided as a guide by the FFFAIF Inc. The FFFAIF Inc does not endorse or verify the information provided by these sites.
To find out more about the FFFAIF simply click on the tabs at the top of each page and then explore each of the sub-pages for more details.
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Disclaimer
The website is under periodical review and changes may occur to the content without notice.
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All website information (i.e. the images, graphics, text etc) on our website are all copyright © Families and Friends of the First AIF Incorporated (FFFAIF Inc.) or its individual Members.
The Families and Friends of the First AIF applauds the joint Australian–UK decision, to conduct a full DNA testing program on the remains of Australian and British soldiers found in mass graves at Pheasant Wood (Fromelles), and for their continuing commitment to identify as many of the fallen as is possible. We also thank the Australian, UK and French governments for affording dignified individual reburials for these soldiers, buried by German soldiers following the Battle of Fromelles on 19/20 July 1916, in the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery.