Letters home notifying next of kin of an soldiers death

[chrisleach78]

Bit of a general query here...

How prone were officers to exagerrating the circumstances of a soldiers death when writing to bereaved parents?

I have an example of a soldier's last actions being described very heroically in a letter home when the battalion diary records his death as result of sniper while showing relieving officers round he trenches.

[centurion]

It was not unknown - similarly there seems to have been a convention that they died either instantly or relatively pain free

[roughdiamond]

Almost certainly a bog standard format and still in place to this day, you only need to listen to the statements issued by CO's on the Death of men in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A few years ago I went to the funeral of a mates Brother killed in Afghan, the OC painted a picture of the best man in the Bn, at the wake, my mate collared him and asked him a simple question, "if he was that good, why was he still a Lance jack after 14 years"?

Silence was the reply.

Sam