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Remembered Today:

Guillemont Cemetery Reburial


JW48

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Hello everyone

My great uncle, MF (Fred) Gotts, service no. 15156, 9th Norfolks, was killed on 15 September 1916.  I have a reburial certificate for him at Guillemont Road Cemetery with a grid reference for his original burial, but I can’t figure out where he was originally buried (I’ve attached the image) I know the 9th Norfolk’s were involved in the taking of the Quadrilateral near Ginchy on 15th Sept 1916, so he could have been buried nearer to there.

We have no information about how or where he was killed, so I’m really keen to locate this map reference.

Thanks so much for any suggestions.

5949905F-7B2D-4666-9D5A-0A7A7992889D.png

Edited by JW48
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Hi and welcome.

If you look at the 4th column, top line of the form detail, under "Map Reference where body found" you will see "57c T14.??.1.1" (can't make out the middle letter I think "a" but you only would have a, b, c or d)

 

regards

Jon

Edited by jonbem
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Thanks Jon, I’ve seen that and tried typing it into the NLS trench map site but to no avail, is there anywhere else where I can use this reference to locate his original grave I wonder?

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A map is here

and to work out locations see https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/battlefields/how-to-read-a-british-trench-map/

Edited by jonbem
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Just outside Ginchy

57c.PNG

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Feeding the coordinates from the burial return into tmapper.com and assuming that the mystery letter is b gives me this. it appears in the correct area for the Ginchy Quadrilateral.

 

Pete.

 

image.png.edf95ea4112b55a62078decbc698c44b.png

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The War Diary for 9 Norfolks on National Archives is HERE for a fee

or if you have Ancestry access HERE for 15 Sept 1916

431 Other Ranks were casualties.

Edited by jonbem
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No problem JW. I've tried putting in the a,c and d as alternatives and they are all in the same area. I thought I might have a photo too having visited Ginchy a few years back but my camera was pointing in the wrong direction as usual.

 

Pete.

 

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We went to Guillemont Cemetery this Summer, so I’ve now got quite a good idea of the surrounding area. Guillemont Cemetery is stunningly beautiful. Thanks Also for the Ancestry details, I’ll take look, we actually have Fred’s 3medals.

 

Edited by JW48
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  • 2 months later...

You will have no trouble locating the original burial site, they were in the process of erecting some wind turbines in that area when I was over in October...

regards

Tom

 

Ginchy.JPG

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On 08/09/2018 at 22:38, Fattyowls said:

Feeding the coordinates from the burial return into tmapper.com and assuming that the mystery letter is b gives me this. it appears in the correct area for the Ginchy Quadrilateral.

 

Pete.

 

image.png.edf95ea4112b55a62078decbc698c44b.png

 

The Quadrilateral was in the bottom right of the above image, where the white triangle is now. 

 

Map ref: 15.c.0.3

 

Edited by Ken Lees
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Excellent Ken, there's nothing like having some local expertise. Hope all is well with you and Happy Christmas/Joyeux Noel depending on your current location.

 

Pete.

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