The Lost Diggers Exhibition

To celebrate the first centenary of World War I and the arrival of the Youth Embassy of Vignacourt in Australia, the Alliance Française de Sydney is hosting an exhibition featuring 13 photos taken in Vignacourt during World War I by a local couple, the Thuilliers.

From 1915 to 1920, Louis Thuillier and his wife Antoinette shot their souvenir photographs of soldiers from France and Britain, their allies, and their colonies, including Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, India and South Africa, as regiments from many countries visited the village for rest and recuperation from the frontlines.

Many of the photographs are of Australian soldiers from the 1st and 5th Division, taken in November and December 1916, just after they had survived the carnage of battles at Pozieres and Fromelles.

For nearly a century these photos lay forgotten in an attic, until Channel 7’s Sunday Night program tracked down the incredible cache of nearly 4000 photographic glass plates. Featuring Australia’s Diggers from the bloodiest battlefields on the Western Front, this exhibition of “The Lost Diggers” commemorates these Aussie soldiers, honouring their memory and celebrating the long lasting friendship between France and Australia.