Error on CWGC Database

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

How does someone advise the CWGC of a mistake on their database?

According to CWGC 3801 Pte A J Hodgkin MGC was killed on 8 February 1917 serving with 115th Company.

HOWEVER

In the War Diary of 52nd Company MGC, 3801 Pte A J Hodgkin is recorded as having been killed on 8 February 1917 with them repelling a German bombing attack.

I would be happy to provide further details to someone who can correct this error.

Ian

[paul guthrie]

I think Terry Denham is the best person to answer but I do have expeience with this. I have succeeded in getting them to change the date of death of an 87th Bn man John Glass mentioned in the book listed below by sending his records with the correct date of death. I think war diary would work.

As an aside, I went to Canadian Cemetery #2 St Vaast in Vimy Park to see the reengraved stone w/o writing down grave reference. Some SOB had stolen the register, this is a big cemetery and it took quite a while. But what the heck we all spend a lot of time walking these cemeteries anyway, wish I was in one today.

[Terry Denham]

Ian

Sorry - Where is the error? You quote both dates as 08.02.17 !

Trying to be a little more helpful...

CWGC have the date as 08.02.17. If you have several pieces of evidence to the contrary, email them on casualty.enq@cwgc.org with the details.

One piece of contrary evidence will often not be enough because that could be wrong. A death certificate is usually required to confirm an erroneous date of death.

Remember, CWGC is not a research organisation and they need positive proof to change a date. However, it is also possible that a scanning error could result in a wrong date and they can change this very quickly.

Send your evidence to them and take it from there.

[Jonathan Saunders]

Ian if you do contact CWGC with evidence, be prepared for a long wait. This is, as Terry will confirm, due to an unequal work load against available resource.

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Terry,

The error is they state 115 Coy MGC and I have evidence which says 52 Coy MGC!

If this is considered 'unimportant' I will not pursue the matter.

Thanks,

Ian

[Terry Denham]

Ian

Apologies. I automatically focused on the date as the source of error.

The reality is that an error of subsidiary unit will be regarded as a minor issue - many entries have no unit mentioned at all. I know it is not 'minor' to the likes of you or I but that is life...

Errors involving a name will be dealt with as high priority as CWGC is obliged to commemorate the name of a casualty. Other factors are not so important. However, CWGC will always correct any factual error if presented with solid evidence.

I still suggest that you contact them with your evidence but it will have to refute the official evidence originally supplied to them by the military. They will stick by their version until something else can be proved. However, it could still be a clerical/scanning error which can be corrected easily. It's worth a try.

As Signals has said, it could take a while but that should not stop you trying.

[paul guthrie]

With John Glass they changed based on the date in his Canadian record & did not tell me the source of the date they had used which was only a day different.