"A Soldier's Grave on the Battlefield": What did it mean?

[rolt968]

The de Ruvigny entry for one of the men I am researching quotes a letter from the chaplain to his mother:

"Your son died nobly in the thick of the severe fighting on 23^rd March [1918]. He found a soldier’s grave on the battlefield."

 

What did it really mean or was meant to be understood to mean?

(He was killed at Wancourt and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.)

 

I tended to the view that it actually meant that his body was not recovered - but I wonder if this biased by hindsight.

 

Whoever compiled the de Ruvigny entry obviously took it literally since elsewhere its says "Buried where he fell".

 

RM

Edited 21 January , 2019 by rolt968

[Buffnut453]

I would interpret it the same way that you have.  The soldier died on the battlefield and he has no known grave.  

 

Ironically, I'm researching a relative at present who also died on 23 March 1918 and who has no known grave.  Small world, huh?

[rolt968]

I wonder how the chaplain meant it to be understood.

RM

[Jools mckenna]

40 minutes ago, rolt968 said:

I wonder how the chaplain meant it to be understood.

RM

Maybe, "He found a soldier’s grave on the battlefield." is meant to mean the same thing as 'died a warriors death' as "died nobly in the thick of the severe fighting" is also said.