BRITISH RED CROSS List October 1918

[Justinth]

Red Cross instruction continued:

'We are also carrying out the following alterations in our present procedure: -

(1) List "A" will not be re-published.

(2) List "B" will thus become the current Enquiry List and the designation "B" will no longer appear.

(3) In the intervals between the publication of the monthly lists, a printed list of Cancellations and Corrections will appear in the Weekly Supplement.

(4) Owing to the large number of new enquiries, it has been found necessary to allow all names which have been in our Searchers' Lists for about three months to lapse from the monthly publication; they will therefore automatically disappear at intervals.

The next monthly List will be published in the first week of October,

Yours truly,

Louis Mallet'

[Justinth]

Just to emphasise the importance of the Red Cross records in Geneva (their records for WW1 should appear online this year) I found the following when searching for Louis Mallet (an F.E,B Isherwood related to the famous writer):

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=eYHG2Y48MK4C&pg=PA417&lpg=PA417&dq=louis+mallet+red+cross&source=bl&ots=nC1BaIkJV6&sig=H7HZba00Er4kvH0HL99VhzO8MLA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GUrJUqr1N4XQhAfHpYCADQ&ved=0CHEQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=louis%20mallet%20red%20cross&f=false

The CWGC has him on the Menin Gate plus no mention of his ID disc being found close to Frezenberg:

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/910340/ISHERWOOD,%20FRANCIS%20EDWARD%20BRADSHAW

[seaforths]

Just to emphasise the importance of the Red Cross records in Geneva (their records for WW1 should appear online this year) I found the following when searching for Louis Mallet (an F.E,B Isherwood related to the famous writer):

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=eYHG2Y48MK4C&pg=PA417&lpg=PA417&dq=louis+mallet+red+cross&source=bl&ots=nC1BaIkJV6&sig=H7HZba00Er4kvH0HL99VhzO8MLA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GUrJUqr1N4XQhAfHpYCADQ&ved=0CHEQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=louis%20mallet%20red%20cross&f=false

The CWGC has him on the Menin Gate plus no mention of his ID disc being found close to Frezenberg:

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/910340/ISHERWOOD,%20FRANCIS%20EDWARD%20BRADSHAW

Justin thank you for your posts and links. I had the feeling that the numbering system was in fact correct and as you point out, reflect the amount of books/lists that are missing which seem (for 1917) to be number 15 and 16. The IWM like to say that they hold all lists known to exist. It does not help when TNA show as holding up to and including number 15 when they have told me by email that the last one they have is actually number 14. One would have thought that if Geneva hold missing lists, IWM, TNA and British Red Cross would have at least tried to plug the gaps before now.

I (like many others) keenly await the release of the information from Geneva this year. There doesn't seem to be much information regarding what exactly will be released. For example, are they only digitising and releasing records of individuals? Will they digitise and release their holdings of enquiry lists? Will they digitise and release information they must surely hold about the camps themselves?

I was told by a member of staff at Kew quite some time ago, possibly in 2012, that they were going to be digitised in Geneva and would be available via TNA but I don't see how that would work as TNA would surely only be able to process information on British POWs. Or, is it only the British POW records that are being digitised?

So many questions...

[Gunner R.A.]

Would there be any chance of a record for this man?

William was wounded and taken prisoner on the 3rd of May 1917, and died the following August.

CRADOCK, William, 235279, PRIVATE, Died of wounds, France & Flanders, 30/08/17, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment), 2nd Battalion.

Any help or advice regarding POWs gratefully appreciated,

kind regards,

Pete.

[MaureenE]

 

An update on this set of records.

Seen on another Forum, a topic which indicates at least some of these records are on Fold3, a pay website which is part of Ancestry (which had some free viewing days recently) in the Fold3  dataset "British WWI Wounded And Missing"

Topic: "Wounded & Missing on Fold3"  http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/forum/topic17231.html#p62333

 

There is mention that the data comes from the Naval & Military Press.

Naval & Military Press currently publish a number of Volumes of British Red Cross & Order Of St John Enquiry List For Wounded And Missing, for different dates, but it's apparently not stated just what the Fold 3 database consists of.

 https://www.naval-military-press.com/?s=British+Red+Cross+and+Order+of+St+John+Enquiry+List+&post_type=product

 

N&MP state the originals are held by  The Imperial War Museum. The IWM copies were probably given by the British Red Cross who disposed of a lot of their records after the war according to the following link The British Red Cross and its archives

https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/the-british-red-cross-and-its-archives/

“...a very important upheaval occurred after the First World War which has had a significant impact on our records. In 1927 it was decided that in view of the enormous volume of records resulting from the activities of the Joint War Committee, the records would be dispersed and only a small proportion retained. A surviving inventory lists the records in three categories which it states were transferred in February and March 1927 to the Joint War Committee, the Imperial War Graves Commission and the Imperial War Museum. However, it appears that none of these groups of records actually survived."

 

N&MP state the originals  of the Enquiry Lists are held by the Department of Printed Books, The Imperial War Museum, “who hold the largest collection of these titles known to exist”. 

 

however I could not locate any IWM catalogue reference. Not sure whether this is my fault, an indication the Search function is lacking, or perhaps IWM has disposed of the originals.

 

if the latter, the N&MP volumes seem to be almost the only source. The British Library  holds "Enquiry List, No. 21, 1918. Wounded and missing", the original 1918 publication, UIN: BLL01001129921, but this was the only one I could see in the catalogue.

 

Cheers

Maureen