DOUCHY-LES-AYETTE BRITISH CEMETERY

[Frajohn]

Interesting sight in Douchy-les-Ayette British Cemetery.

 

It would appear that there might be discord around this burial ?

 

[Ken Lees]

Interesting. 

 

The CWGC have put the wrong badge on the headstone of Fl. Sgt. Haxton, too.

 

 

Edited 11 December , 2018 by Ken Lees

[Cheshire22]

As the Big Yin once said ‘Shocked and Stunned’ 

 

that it has resorted to this type of embarrassment for all in involved in the research and also those who looked at the case on this forum 

 

it would be nice to find out, who put this over the grave and to read why they did this 

 

jamie 

[Marilyne]

4 hours ago, Ken Lees said:

Interesting. 

 

The CWGC have put the wrong badge on the headstone of Fl. Sgt. Haxton, too.

 

 

 

There are some threads on the forum about RFC graves with the RAF badge on it. seems to be a normal practice. 

Thanks for linking us to the thread on Cpl Jeffs, it's an amazing research endeavour that's been launched there, with unfortunately still not positive outcome.

Let's hope somebody at the Commission takes the time to review it all. But it seems as there is still Reasonable Doubt, to say it in lawyers terms. 

 

M. 

[Franksy]

Quite a few of us on the Somme know about the Bertie Jeffs story and a few of our British clients have also mentioned it. Its probably somebody on the Somme who did the banner but it was a UK based researcher friend who put a case in to CWGC in August 2017 after yet another friend with property here had seen the Ernest Haxton headstone and the headstone beside it and sent a photo through to him. At that time they didn't know that a case also claiming it to be Jeffs had been put in in 2009 but had been rejected. The CWGC later advised that yet another case had been put in in 2016 but as of August 2017 seemed not to have been forwarded by the CWGC to the MOD. All a bit of a muddle!



We've seen the file of the August 2017 case and at the beginning it all looks completely straightforward. But by March 2018 the letters and e-mails really get going including the secretary of state for defense and another member of parliament, and also a lot of exchanges with the CWGC director general. Not all of them are entirely friendly. In fact the CWGC director general gets quite snotty. The MOD and the CWGC continually just ignore the case presented and keep saying "officers clothing".  I've been in touch and my friend has told me that he has been told by the CWGC that his August 2017 case is being reviewed again. I don't think this is going to go away.

Franksy

[Franksy]

There is a four page article  on this topic in the in the just issued bulletin of the Western Front journal.

[Michelle Young]

Not being a WFA member I can’t access the article. However, if you are going to put a banner over a grave, at least check the spelling. 

[BillyH]

41 minutes ago, Michelle Young said:

Not being a WFA member I can’t access the article. However, if you are going to put a banner over a grave, at least check the spelling. 

 

Agreed, and that is worse than bad spelling, it's absolutely dreadful.

This Forum also has quite a few appalling examples, especially in the titles of new topics. I know we are not all good at spelling but surely the titles could be corrected by Admin?

As an example, a recent one in the 'Soldiers' section reads :

medals that ar deleated

 

BillyH.

Edited 4 April , 2019 by BillyH

[mandy hall]

Having read the article in the Bulletin, the authors did not put the banner on the grave.

 

Mandy