Differing units for the Same Casualty

[Nuttin1917]

Hello all:
        While researching some casualties, I've run across different unit assignments for the same men listed on Commonwealth War Graves Commission Memorials and Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects. Which of these two sources is likely to be more accurate?
Thanks for any insights.

[RussT]

CWGC should be the most accurate - but it does have mistakes - although hopefully decreasing as we all continue to request amendments to correct those mistakes.

I've found the Soldiers' Effects Records to be very accurate - but again there can be errors, which are frozen as such forever.

If you want to share an example, we can have a look.

Regards

Russ

[RussT]

When you say "units" do you mean, for example, different Battalions within a Regiment or different Regiments for the same man across the two record sets?

Russ

 

[Nuttin1917]

Regiment and Unit, the terms used by the CWGC, have been precisely transcribed from the CWGC.

Here are three casualties from the Dunster Armored Car Brigade war diary, killed at Baku and commemorated on the Basra Memorial.

Ser No.                 Name                                    Date Death                          Regiment CWGC                                   Unit CWGC                              Register of Effects

80120	Dufner, Leonard	26 Aug 1918	Machine Gun Corps (Mot)	6th Light Armoured Motor Bty	Dunster Armoured Car Bde
80096	Hayward, Charles W. W.	26 Aug 1918	Machine Gun Corps (Mot)	6th Light Armoured Motor Bty	Dunster Armoured Car Bde

80016

Steadman, Harry

26 Aug 1918

Machine Gun Corps (Mot)

6th Light Armoured Motor Bty

Dunster Armoured Car Bde

Dufner's personnel record indicates he was previously a member of the Locker Lamson AC Unit, so he would have been a member of the machine gun battalion, formed from two squadrons of the Dunster AC Brigade without armoured cars in summer 1918, that fought in Baku. 

Several armoured cars of the 6th Light Armoured Motor Battery were attached to Dunsterforce, but it is unclear if any men from this unit were sent to Baku.

As the two sets of records used are contradictory, to which unit did these men belong when they became casualties?

Thanks for taking a look.