Researching “Unknown” War Graves

[Seadog]

Researching “Unknown” War Graves

I post this topic as a recent thread from Canada gives very detailed information on current research aiming to prove that named individuals rest in war graves bearing “Known unto God” on the headstones. It is not my intention to disparage in any way the copious research undertaken by the above but to invite members to comment on all aspects of this type of research by discussing the pros and cons as they see it. The following are my own views on this subject given the information currently available.

The topic referred to above

 

1.0

The exhumation companies had a horrible task in both finding and exhuming the dead and I have no doubt that given such a traumatic task they and their officers did the best they could to obtain some identification of the remains

2.0

Given the situation at the time and the numbers involved it is not surprising that errors occurred and it is possible that an indeterminate number of the dead were buried as unknown when data did exist which may have provided enough information to give a name or perhaps further details.

3.0

In recent years the detail and volume of data relating to the fallen of WW1 now available to the general public seems to increase almost daily which gives the opportunity to researchers to spend as long as they wish in attempting to provide evidence that certain unknown graves can in fact be proved to be that of a named individual.

4.0

These cases would then be submitted to the appropriate authority, like the MOD in the UK, for them to investigate and agree or disprove the submissions before any headstones are replaced by the CWGC.

5.0

The current estimate in respect of the Canadian project is that the timescale for each individual submission to be determined by the authorities ranges between one and five years and that 32 such cases have been forwarded so far.

6.0

My concerns are whether it is right to as it were attempt to rewrite history just because we can which will impose a huge workload on the JCCC in the case of the British MOD and will by necessity result in an extremely long timescale before any decision is made.

7.0

In the case of the Canadian project I understand that to put pressure on the authorities the details of each case have been uploaded to social media meaning that if not already aware the relatives of those named fallen will be given false hope that their case will arrive at a successful conclusion which of course it may not.

Finally just as an example of the scale of this situation, there are over 45,000 war graves in the Ypres Salient alone marked as “Unknown”

Norman

[Seadog]

I understand that cases are being compiled and sent to the authorities in both Australia and Canada, does the same situation apply here in the UK and if so what was the result. I must admit that this subject came as a complete surprise to me as I cannot recall such being mentioned on the forum before, though I may have missed it.

Norman

[Seadog]

As there are no responses I will assume that in the case of the UK such research and submissions to the MOD are not currently being pursued

Cheers

Norman

[laughton]

I only just stumbled on this topic while searching for the Arras Air Services Memorial. I am not sure why it was posted here and not where the topic was started, as I certainly would have replied.

In Canada, the "CWGC Agency" which is more or less an arm of Veteran's Affairs Canada represents the CWGC on Canadian cases. Our reports go to them first (directly) but their major task here is the monitoring and maintenance of CWGC stones in Canada and the Caribbean. They tell us they really have no time for the review of our reports.

If we want the Canadian Department of Defence to participate, such as the case where we find men that are still in the battlefield, we are responsible for the cost and work to identify the burial site. DND will only participate once that work is complete and they will not fund the work. My understanding is that in the UK it is your MOD that provides both those services, but I stand to be corrected.

As for the use of the Social Media to publicize the work, we are getting fantastic responses from the families. That all started because the case we did for Lance Corporal Morgan Jones Jenkins sat on the desk for 4 months without any action. During that period, the family member who was looking after the family ancestry project passed away in Florida. The family only wished that he could have had the opportunity to participate in the project and see the work that was done. We have not had one family member say anything negative about the work and they are welcome to contact us at any time with questions or comments. Most certainly, if they asked us to remove anything about their family member we would do so without question.

We are now cooperating with a number of other groups in the UK, Australia and South Africa so this has become somewhat of an international project.

Richard

[micks]

Norman

There are people that I am aware of from within and outside the U.K who are submitting British cases to the CWGC. Some of these people have been working on this project prior to the release of the burial returns in 2014. Under these circumstances there needs to be a degree of caution otherwise the CWGC will be receiving reports for cases which have already been submitted.

Mick

[laughton]

Could not agree more and that is why we are working on the International Cooperation Project approach. You can check any of ours at any time here:

CEFSG Unknown Project

I would be most happy to cooperate with any British team doing the same work, as we are with South Africa War Graves Project. We can have a master list quite easily in these days of instant interactive communications.

You can easily check any that we have reported via our Twitter postings:

Who we have reported to date: #CEFSG_Found

We need help finding information about these cases: #CEFSG_Help

These are just corrections to gravestones: #CEFSG_Correction

Contact me at any time on any issue related to this project.

Richard