More than 30 archaeologists and forensic anthropologists have descended on the small village of Fromelles to begin the exhumation of up to 400 World War I soldiers buried in a mass grave in northern France.

The ambitious, British-Australian project to identify the men and their families starts formally today and a camp containing a small mortuary and medical laboratory has been built in a field near the graves to receive the remains.  more...

A poem by Annie Kemp to help us remember the fallen heroes of Frommelles, France

Exhumus

Exhumator, ceremoniously you waken us

Gone so long, back in World War One

Sorrow, yes, but no forced air of solemnity

Take us up gently – bones of the unreturning,

Doomed but valiant knaves

Shelled hideously, intermingled in French mud.

Probe for mates, collate and light us

Twenty first century, DNA and type me

Photo, blog and net me

Kith and kin, trace and verify me

Name, claim and honour my youth

Forget not, why we came here, back in World War One

Exhumator, when you’ve done,

Go against your trade and reinterre me.

A. Kemp May 2009