A group of 30 Israelis set out on a journey in southern Israel on Saturday to find the burial place of an Australian soldier who was killed in battle 105 years earlier as the British Empire tried to gain control of the Middle East from the Ottoman Empire, the Walla news website reported on Wednesday.
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Louden Park Cochrane, a native of Ireland, was 24 at the time of his death. He was buried by fellow soldiers and a priest, who even took a photograph next to his grave, and even wrote down directions, although they have proved to be difficul to decipher.
Shortly after Cochrane's death, his mother sent a letter to the Australian military asking for information on her son's burial place, but efforts to locate it were unsuccessful.
Ninety-nine years after the grieving mother made her request, a group of Israeli citizens began to search for the location
Ninety-nine years after the grieving mother made the request, a group of Israeli citizens took up the search again after a relative of Cochrane contacted the Ruhama kibbutz in northern Israel to help find his father's brother's grave.
Gan Erez, who organized the search efforts, said, "For me it's such an obvious thing, I don't understand why some ask us why we are making such an effort. If it was Eli Cohen, Ron Arad or Guy Hever [we were looking for], nobody would be surprised by our strong desire to find them. For me, this is a soldier who fought for the liberation of the land of Israel and we need to find his burial place."
The group used metal detector in hopes to find items that belonged to Cochrane. Israeli and Australian officials also joined the efforts.
After eight hours of searches, the group found a bullet, a metal button, and the casing of a German bullet, but no items belonging to Cochrane.
But Erez remains optimistic, saying, "We will find the grave, we will not give up."
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