Final resting place of missing digger located after 100 years

It takes incredible passion and commitment to solve a mystery surrounding events that happened more than a century ago in a foreign country, during wartime. Thanks to the work of the Australian Army Unrecovered War Casualties team, Fallen Diggers Incorporated (a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to undertaking research on the past World Wars) a genetic genealogist, one digger's legacy has finally been restored.

Their combined efforts have led to the location of the grave of Reuben Parkes, an Australian serviceman who was killed in action during the First Battle of Villers-Brettoneux on 30 March 1918. Lieutenant Parke’s final resting place has been unknown since his death in France, after being hastily buried by the Germans in a grave marked only with his rank; that of Second Lieutenant.

One hundred years later, Reuben Parkes’ nephew, Roy Parkes (95), was thrilled to learn that his uncle’s resting place had been identified. Roy is a resident of the Thomas Bowden retirement village in Ryde. He was tracked down through the efforts of genealogist Toni White, who was called in by the Defence Department to track down Reuben's next of kin. Armed with only a name and service number, Toni used historic birth, deaths and marriage records, plus the Sydney Morning Herald to look at death notices, and church records. Her sleuthing eventually led her to the door of Roy.

Read the full story as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.