Ages on CWGC Grave Markers

[woolly]

Good afternoon everyone!

Was the age inscribed on the headstone taken from the soldier's service record (bearing in mind that he might have lied about his age on enlistment) or his true age taken from his birth certificate at Somerset House?

Thanks in advance!

Woolly

Edited 22 November , 2021 by woolly
Badly written.

[ss002d6252]

3 minutes ago, woolly said:

Good afternoon everyone!

Was the DoB inscribed on the headstone taken from the soldier's service record (bearing in mind that he might have lied about his age on enlistment) or his true age taken from his birth certificate at Somerset House?

Thanks in advance!

Woolly

Ages were not verified except in rare cases where there was some sort of issue (usually with underage enlistees).

The CWGC would show age, not date of birth.

Craig

[Michelle Young]

The dates on headstones were I think supplied by their relatives. If you look at the CWGC site you will see on the headstone schedules.

[PRC]

3 minutes ago, woolly said:

Was the DoB inscribed on the headstone taken from the soldier's service record

As far as I'm aware they are not on the headstones installed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for soldiers of the British Empire - have you come across some where this has in fact been done?

Cheers,
Peter

[woolly]

11 minutes ago, ss002d6252 said:

Ages were not verified except in rare cases where there was some sort of issue (usually with underage enlistees).

The CWGC would show age, not date of 

Thanks for all the answers and I've amended my badly drafted initial post as well - of course it wasn't DoB, what was I thinking!!

I'm just trying to rationalise the Army policy regarding deployment ages against those on grave markers.

Edited 22 November , 2021 by woolly
Correction

[woolly]

16 minutes ago, PRC said:

As far as I'm aware they are not on the headstones installed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for soldiers of the British Empire - have you come across some where this has in fact been done?

Cheers,
Peter

Hi Peter, no I haven't and please see my post further down the thread.

[MelPack]

Just to confirm that the age came from information provided by the relatives. I have come across some instances where the age provided is significantly off due to the relative calculating the age from the DoB to the date of returning the form rather than the date of death.

Edited 22 November , 2021 by MelPack

[woolly]

1 hour ago, MelPack said:

Just to confirm that the age came from information provided by the relatives. I have come across some instances where the age provided is significantly off due to the relative calculating the age from the DoB to the date of returning the form rather than the date of death.

Thank you. I'm looking at this from the other end of the telescope; in terms of enlistment, where the Army believed that they had someone who was at least 18 and that is what features in his paperwork (only he wasn't). However, it wasn't until the post-war administration surrounding burials was conducted that their true age came to light.

[kenf48]

A man's age on enlistment was his 'army age'.  

As an example George Coppard who enlisted in 1914 aged sixteen notes an uncle wrote to the War Office on behalf of his mother to point out he was just eighteen having served eight months in France.  The response (published in George's memoir) concluded, 'that his age on attestation was given as 19 years and 7 months that is therefore his official age...'

The Final Verification Form https://shapingoursorrow.cwgc.org/bargaining/families-make-their-mark/

gave next of kin the opportunity to add the correct age.

If as frequently happened the form was not returned then any age details would be taken from Army Records and that would reflect his  'official age'.