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Remembered Today:

RESOLVED - Bertie Jeffs and Ernest Haxton RFC


Tom Tulloch-Marshall

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CWGC ID Case 86.2 ~ Claim of identification of the place of burial of Corporal 3023 Bertie Frederick George JEFFS No 11 Squadron Royal Flying Corps ~ Killed in action 10th October 1916 - And The correct date of death of his pilot Flight Sergeant 649 Ernest Haxton

 

As many will be aware JP and I submitted this case to the CWGC in August 2017. An explanation of the case and developments were detailed in the Western Front Association “Bulletin” No 113 of April 2019 (“The Mystery Man of Douchy-les-Ayette”). An addendum report was taken to CWGC’s HQ by hand 11/11/2019, this detailing freshly discovered material found in a German archive and relating to 1916 German records of the two airmen’s burials at Fremicourt in October 1916. That seemed to have had little impact and an updated report was published in WFA “Bulletin” No 116 of April 2020. Correspondence (mainly one-way) has been almost continuous since August 2017 (the correspondence file is now over 5cm thick). On the 29th of April I received an email from the CWGC saying that they had now passed our updated case to the MoD (AHB) as having “merit” (not agreed or recommended, just having “merit”). Further details were requested however nothing more was heard …

 

Until – Out of the blue on Friday 12th June an email and letter were received from the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre of the MoD at Gloucester.

Email - “Good Afternoon Tom, I hope you are well.” etc etc etc. (I had had lunch with the sender and others at a rededication ceremony in France for a RD Fusiliers officer who I’d identified several years ago).

Letter – “Dear Mr Tulloch-Marshall. 3023 Corporal Bertie Frederick George JEFFS. Thank you for submitting the case for Cpl Bertie Jeffs. etc etc etc.

“… Following the inclusion of the German record …”

“… and take the case forward to a rededication ceremony.”

“… The date of death of Sergeant Ernest Haxton will also be corrected to 10 October 1916.”

 

So there you have it – its been a very long and stressful process, but at least now we don’t have to submit yet another update with the material found in the archives of an American university after the second article was published, or continue to wait for The National Archives to reopen so that new leads we have been pointed towards in un-digitalised files can be followed-up.

 

Yes we will be at the rededication ceremony.

Tom

 

 

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I have read the WFA articles about your case.  Many congratulations - not least on your stamina and perseverance!

Edited by jaykayu
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Arras Flying Services Memorial

- JEFFS, Bertie Frederick George   3023

Cemetery = DOUCHY-LES-AYETTE BRITISH CEMETERY     France

 

Commemoration moved as of yesterday.

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On ‎21‎/‎06‎/‎2020 at 10:21, chrisharley9 said:

Arras Flying Services Memorial - JEFFS, Bertie Frederick George   3023 Cemetery = DOUCHY-LES-AYETTE BRITISH CEMETERY     France Commemoration moved as of yesterday.

 

Thanks for that info - I currently don't have the time to monitor all of the sources as, amongst all the other things going on + the fact that I'm under medical lock-down, I'm working on two other previously rejected CWGC ID cases which were submitted by others - not by me - I've just been asked to go back through the evidence, correspondence, and chuck in my two penneth worth. (Both cases "have merit" ! ).

 

"Obviously" we had not been advised directly of this development ref Bertie - nor have had replies to outstanding correspondence regarding the case. Apparently we have been declared to be persona non grata at No2 SL6 7DX.

Tom

Edited by Tom Tulloch-Marshall
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On ‎21‎/‎06‎/‎2020 at 10:21, chrisharley9 said:

Commemoration moved as of yesterday.

 

We also see that Ernest Haxton's date of death has been changed from 11/10/16 to 10/10/16 in the CWGC database, without explanation. Obviously the original IWGC paperwork links are still in place so another "contradiction" has been created.

Tom

 

Ernest Haxton date change Capture.JPG

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Congratulations!!!

Great job!!

 

M.

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The headstones as we hope to see them quite soon >

(Photographic wizardry courtesy of Frajohn)

 

 

Douchy-les-Ayette British Cemetery a Bertie and Ernest update JK 5-2-20 RAF badges.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

Details of the rededication service are published on the JCCC website today:

In addition to the burial services (detailed above), there is also a Service of Rededication at 1030 hrs on Tuesday 28 September 2021, for Cpl Bertie Frederick George Jeffs, at Gouchy-Les-Ayette British Cemetery.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mod-war-detectives-the-joint-casualty-and-compassionate-centre-commemorations-team-our-future-services-current-appeals-and-past-cases

Nothing on CWGC yet.

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  • 2 weeks later...
23 hours ago, andrew pugh said:

Hi Tom  

Well done, another one off the list of unknowns. Keep up the good work.

Kind Regards

Andy

 

Message from Tom:

"You’re unlikely to hear from him as he’s “banned” apparently. I’ve heard it was because of forthright objections to having mails censored or blocked."

 

See also:

 

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1 hour ago, Don Regiano said:

BBC Radio Oxford this morning. David Prever’s Breakfast Club, Sophie Law sitting in. Scroll through to 3hrs 8mins and wait for the end of “Fame” >

 

 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09vy955

It was interesting to listen too, I liked the point Tom put across, that the researchers are never named and the media release leads towards the CWGC and JCCC did all the work in this case.  
 

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