For anyone who might be interested. I have recently met a retired Maire in Avord, Cher who has a fascinating private museum of WW1 memorabilia. He was the Maire in Vignacourt in the Somme where there were a huge number of Australians who were photographed by a French couple.
See http://www.photoforum.com.au/showthread.php?47947-The-Lost-Diggers-Historic-trove-of-WWI-photos-lost-in-French-barn-for-nearly-100-yrs
M. Hubau was the one who found out about the photo plates and has since been trying to get Australia interested in finding the relatives of the men in the photos.
He has a very interesting story to tell if anyone would like to write about it as he is now 80ish and not in good health.
Hello Sue
Fascinating story, thank you for sharing it with us. A similar find of photogrpahic plates was found in another Somme village a few years ago. It was common practice for photographers to set up shop in behind the lines billets. I would imagine that Vignacourt was a 1918 billet for the Australians as they were in the line near Amiens (Villers-Bretonneux) from April to August 1918.
I’d be very interested in carrying out any research on his behalf, I have contacts with the Australian War Memorial in Canberra as well as with my former employers at the Historial Great War museum in Péronne (Somme). If this is possible please get in touch with me Sue…email is
charlieismydog@hotmail.com
Best regards
Lawrence Brown