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Remembered Today:

Body density map


s.hibbitt

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I'm sure one exists, but the area has always been beyond my research and as such I don't have a copy of 51b.

I believe it is important to look at the purpose of these 'individual burial location maps' - 'body density' has always seemed a little crass to me. These maps were prepared by the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquires (DGRE) in early 1919 and so postdate your 1917 enquiry.

The blue figures indicate to the labour companies about to start the grim task of clearance, where bodies were registered as buried according to DGRE records, ie: those recorded by Grave Registration Units (GRU). The blue figures do not represent any burials within  'registered' cemeteries within the square (500 x 500 yards) even if that cemetery is due for concentration. Unburied bodies and bodies whose temporary burial was not notified to DGRE are also not included. 

The accuracy of the blue figures should be seen as very suspect. The accuracy of the map reference of the person or unit who buried them was not always good, often no map reference was given at all, instead the location could be given as a shellhole between the German 2nd and 3rd line or such. The labour companies also gave suspect map references for their finds so that comparison of expected numbers to actual results is difficult. This can be seen when searching the Grave Registration Reports via the CWGC database and attempting to make a comparable with the blue figures. So what then was the use of the blue figures? They were for planning purposes. If the figure was 9 the search was not repeated if only 8 were found or stopped when 9 were found. The commander of the search party could plan the order of the number of markers required and also assess the time required for exhumation based on the expected number of registered burials - the process of exhumation and reburial being of a strict time sensitive nature.

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If anyone knows if there is one, it will be @Howard

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Map sent as PM.

The map is simply marked AAM in blue pencil. This is probably Arthur Albert Messer, no proof.

Medal index card. Arthur Albert Messer, Driver No. One Ambulance BRXS, added to which was Lt Colonel (undated) and the words "clasp and roses 1922."

Given the temporary rank in 1916 on the General List (which means no particular affiliation to a unit). He was Fabian Ware's second in command with the early stages of the Grave Registration Unit and when Ware returned to England in 1916, Messer was given the responsibility for the Western Front.

Both Ware and Messer started with a RX unit, their work in establishing grave registration eventually led to a Government organisation being set up with the Prince of Wales as patron
Harry
   
The AAM maps. The maps listed as being marked with AAM are thought to have been used by Arthur Albert Messer. There is no proof of this, it is simply very likely.

It is believed the maps marked AAM were compiled between December 1918 and July 1919 when Lt-Col. Arthur Albert Messer was working as the Assistant Director of Graves Registration and Enquiries in France.  During this period he had been instructed to select and lay out war cemeteries and plot isolated graves.  The blue pencil numbers equate to the number of marked burials registered in each square e.g. take square 36.N. 9.c. - CWGC records show that in November 1919 when the Graves Concentration Unit visited this square it found just 3 crosses :-
 
Cross 1 was marked 'Erected to the memory of 49 Australian Soldiers'
Cross 2 was marked 'Erected to the memory of 115 Australian Soldiers'
Cross 3 was marked 'An unknown number of British soldiers'
 
But, it removed nearly 300 bodies from this square for re-burial in Rue-David Cemetery.  There were further recoveries, from unmarked graves, being made from this square in
December 1920, October 1921 and April 1922.

 
At the beginning of August 1919, Colonel Messer returned to England to take care of some private matters.  It appears he did not return to France, instead he was eventually appointed as the IWGC Representative in neutral countries after being demobbed in January 1920.  He held this post until March 1925, when budgetary cuts at the Commission forced them to cut the post.  However, Colonel Messer agreed to continue his work with the Commission on an 'expenses only paid basis'.  He died on the 14th April 1934 at his home in Hook Heath, Woking, age 70.  He is buried in Brookwood Cemetery.  He was a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and practised architecture first in America and then in London.  On the outbreak of war he joined the Red Cross service and was attached for a time to the French Army .  He was commissioned in the British Army in February 1915 and became the Officer Commanding the Graves Registration Units.  He was awarded the DSO in 1917 and created CBE in 1919.

Research by Harry Heap 16 March 2006 at TNA

 

 

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Here are the numbers in the relevant squares, as depicted on the map below, courtesy John Reed:

41    51b.N.18.b
7    51b.N.18.c
3    51b.N.18.d
21    51b.N.19.a
20    51b.N.19.b
3    51b.N.21.a
3    51b.N.21.b
3    51b.N.21.c
3    51b.N.21.c
5    51b.N.22.a
4    51b.N.22.b
4    51b.N.22.d
7    51b.N.23.a
1    51b.N.23.b
10    51b.N.23.c
82    51b.N.23.d
4    51b.N.24.a
31    51b.N.24.b
34    51b.N.24.c
39    51b.N.24.d
11    51b.N.25.d
23    51b.N.26.a
1    51b.N.26.b
10    51b.N.28.d
45    51b.N.30.a
40    51b.N.30.b
34    51b.N.30.c
31    51b.N.30.d

Here is a small map extract, courtesy IWM & WFA. 

image.png.c686783bdbaba16ec68127aa7bcf2a4a.png

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Thanks so much for this help. Jay, I agree it sounds crass and wished I had a better way of explaining myself but I could only go on what the labels used searching  threw Google.  

It is solely for use loosely and learning. 

Having returned from their last week I want to return next summer armed with more knowledge,  understanding and insight of the battlefields around Warncourt Cemetery and Kestrel Copse.  If it makes sense I want to bring it more to life and learn the line taken on April 23rd 1917 with more accuracy than my mind and feelings gave me. 

I'm a beginner with only eight years of learning and eager to do that. The interest in this angle is that of a newly found ancestor k.i.a on this day with the 1/5th Durham Light Infantry,  my partner was totally drawn to a particular grave of an unknown soldier next to known graves and by looking with interest at them realised they were the same regiment and found in the same square. It's a curiosity of learning and either way we've adopted the unknown to remember him by and that won't change.  

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28 minutes ago, WhiteStarLine said:

Here are the numbers in the relevant squares, as depicted on the map below, courtesy John Reed:

41    51b.N.18.b
7    51b.N.18.c
3    51b.N.18.d
21    51b.N.19.a
20    51b.N.19.b
3    51b.N.21.a
3    51b.N.21.b
3    51b.N.21.c
3    51b.N.21.c
5    51b.N.22.a
4    51b.N.22.b
4    51b.N.22.d
7    51b.N.23.a
1    51b.N.23.b
10    51b.N.23.c
82    51b.N.23.d
4    51b.N.24.a
31    51b.N.24.b
34    51b.N.24.c
39    51b.N.24.d
11    51b.N.25.d
23    51b.N.26.a
1    51b.N.26.b
10    51b.N.28.d
45    51b.N.30.a
40    51b.N.30.b
34    51b.N.30.c
31    51b.N.30.d

Here is a small map extract, courtesy IWM & WFA. 

image.png.c686783bdbaba16ec68127aa7bcf2a4a.png

Thank you 

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