CWGC Appeal June 11 2019 - 4 casualties 1st Middlesex Regiment 29 September 1918

[laughton]

see the Tweet here: https://twitter.com/CWGC/status/1139835080103419904

 

main page is here: https://www.cwgc.org/learn/news-and-events/news/2019/06/11/11/00/appeal-for-relatives---four-casualties-of-the-1st-battalion-middlesex-regiment

 

How did they determine it was one of the four (4) on the Vis-En-Artois Memorial for that date? There are three (3) more on 2 October 1918, still in the same location.

 

If they do identify them, then they will also know that that other two (2) missing that day are in graves 1.C.18 and 1.D.12. There was another one in 1.B.12 which was changed to UBS.

 

 

[Hedley Malloch]

Chromatography? Analysis of the chemistry of a bone can show where someone was raised. The water drunk in childhood is chemically unique and leaves a distinctive marker in the composition of the bone. This enables researchers to identify where someone was born and brought up.

The problem is that there may be more than one casualty from that area. Note that all four names shortlisted belonged to the 1/Middlesex Regiment, a pre-War regular army unit - did they all come from the same town? But if relatives come forward a DNA test can be done to confirm or eliminate.

This method is used certainly by the Australians to identify war dead. One casualty (forget his name) of Messines Ridge was recovered from the Ploegsteert Wood/Factory Farm area. Chromatography showed he came from the Hunter Valley region. But there were six other missing casualties from the same region. Their names were published and relatives were asked to come forward for DNA testing. In this way the soldier was named and he was later interred in Prowse Point CWGC.