Gallipoli Dead from Western Australia

Earlier this year, a group of Western Australian historians and genealogists came together to answer what should have been a simple question: how many Western Australian men were killed at Gallipoli during the First World War?

The answer, as it turned out, was not so simple. Though we have the figures of how many men signed up in each state throughout the war, it appears there has been no previous calculation of exactly how many died from each state in the various arenas.

Part of the complication comes from how to work out who could be considered Western Australian in the first place. Plenty of men signed up here who just happened to be in the state at the time and had no other connection, so the embarkation rolls do not provide a perfect answer. The project set criteria for Western Australian identity, and volunteers then tracked down all kinds of records to verify connections and come up with a final answer.

Project coordinator Shannon Lovelady gave a great interview on ABC Radio last week to talk about the project and the final outcome, which is worth a listen.

I came in on the tail end of the project and assisted in tracking down a few of the trickier cases. Their stories and many others can be found on the Facebook page for the Gallipoli Dead of Western Australia, where Shannon hopes the process of sharing information will continue as we approach the centenary of the ANZAC landing in 2015.