Document 17 - “A fine chap, one of the best”

Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau file for Captain Charles Linklater

A few weeks after the Battle of Messines, Dorothy received a telegram stating that Charles had gone missing during the battle.

During the war the Red Cross established a bureau to investigate the fate of wounded, missing and killed soldiers. The Red Cross conducted interviews with the soldier's comrades to try and find out what happened to him. The interviews were passed onto the families unedited, despite the fact that they sometimes contained inconsistencies and inaccurate information.

These interview transcripts are from Charles' file. The Red Cross sent them to Dorothy in 1918.

Source: Australian Red Cross Society Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files, 1914-18 War, AWM 1DRL/0428

Ask Yourself

  1. How useful is this source to a historian?
  2. Which is the most trustworthy account?
  3. Corroborating the evidence, what most likely happened to Linklater?