query regarding stastics...

[observer]

From 1920 to the present 2024 are there any offical stastics of missing soldiers of the British Empire 1914-1918 whcih show:

How many listed in 1918?

How Many have been recovered?

How many have been identiefied?

How many new names have been added to Rolls of Honor [that had been overlooked?]

[jay dubaya]

The IWGC/CWGC Annual Reports are a great source for such statistics. By 1923 the annual reports gave figures for Belgium and France respectivey although, the format and reporting  became inconsisitant and had tailed off by the mid 1930s where the same numbers were repeated for several years upto another conflict. Although recent CWGC figures give totals for the Western Front they do include the casualties of both conflicts.

I have managed to build a spreadsheet using all these offical figures to determine how many headstones carry the words 'Known unto God' for Belgium and France. Knowing this figure and those listed on memorials highlights the figure for how many remains are literally still missing. The numbers are forever changing and no doubt will continue to do so for many years to come, names are added and changed as to how they are commemorated almost daily, names removed from memorials and added to headstones, remains buried as unkown etc.

It is difficult to deterime a percentage of those remains recovered being identified, the annual reports suggest these numbers dwindled as the years rolled on. In the ten years post 1921 whe the IWGC took over from the DGR&E the annual reports would suggest around 25% were identified by name. The progression of DNA testing and groups such as the In From The Cold Project have added many more names to headstones and memorials. Not forgetting the constant stream of reports submitted by researchers to the CWGC et al.

(1937/38 IWGC Annual Report - CWGC Archive)

 

 

 

[observer]

I hope these tables will be helpful to historians and authors