commemorated on the wrong memorial

[Guest]

i have been researching my great, great uncle who died during ww1, he was commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing  Belgium, after intensive research i established that he was killed during the battle of Arras France, i then contacted the war graves commission with all the information i had including the war diary showing when and were he died, the war graves commission reviewed all the information and have decided that his name will be moved to the Arras memorial for the missing, i have to say that the war graves commission were of the upmost help and were only too pleased to rectify the situation.    

[Chris_Baker]

That's great. Well done and thank you. I've had a few cases like that recently and they have responded positively each time. The latest one is an officer listed at Ploegsteert who really should have been on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial. They explained the "error" by saying that the information received at the time did not identify what we now know to have been his actual unit but only one with which he had previously served. Makes you wonder how many more may have been like that.

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply Chris, as you say there are probably many more commemorated in the wrong place,

regards

Kevin  

[laughton]

I have two similar cases before the CWGC at this time. The first one for the Canadian (Montanelli) was rejected by the staff at that time (now gone) as he felt it was only important that he be remembered. With the support of the Canadian government we have filed an appeal asking that history be corrected. This is the original information on the CEFSG site:

 

Private John Montanelli #24267: 13th Bn. (on wrong memorial)

 

This is what Nic Andrews had to say to his fellow staff at the CWGC, which was not well received in Ottawa. The other men he refers to were killed in Belgium but all of the Canadians lost at Bois-Grenier France, with no known grave, are on the Vimy Memorial in France. What a ridiculous answer!

Quote

Dear Andrew, There are over 100 Canadians from the 13th Bn. Canadian Infantry who perished in 1915 commemorated on the Menin Gate, so the casualty is commemorated with his comrades. Moving the casualty to Vimy would be difficult to arrange. The existing arrangement has been in place for the best part of 100 years and casualty’s relatives were aware of the Menin Gate commemoration. I would advise leaving things as they are in terms of commemoration, but it would be useful to collect the evidence and add it to our record for Montanelli for future reference. Kind regards, Nic

 

This one was worse, as the Australian was not even there:

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/266046-correction-report-7th-bn-aif-on-menin-gate-memorial-instead-of-villers-bretonneux-memorial/

 

We are submitting these two reports together to make a case for the past requests that were rejected. It distorts history if you are researching a regiment and the men are listed on the wrong memorial.

 

These reports are finished and are undergoing final review by the outside auditor before they are submitted to the CWGC.

[nigelcave]

Villers Bret would be an easier memorial on to which to add a name; Vimy rather more difficult. Even worse would be if a man is commemorated at Vimy should be on the Menin Gate. In the latter case I am pretty sure that he would have to remain on the Vimy Memorial, tho' they might add him to the Menin Gate as well. So far as I know, even when a member of the CEF has been identified and now has a headstone, his name remains on the Vimy Memorial because of the way that that the names were carved on it.

[nigelcave]

The Americans have a solution to the problem of removing names from a memorial; when a casualty is on a memorial to the missing and is subsequently identified, they put a rosette (in bronze?) by the name on the memorial.