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Remembered Today:

William Greenhalgh MC


jim_davies

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Came across this chap in the CWGC website, I was interested as he's listed as:

William Greenhalgh MC

Private, 14153, 1st Yorks & Lancaster Regt

Died 23rd April 1915.

What caught my eye was his rank and corresponding MC. Is it possible his served as an officer in the Boer War or other colonial conflicts, was decorated and rejoined as a ranker; or is this entry an example of CWGC scanning problems ?

Attempted to pull him up on the London Gazette, but couldn't find anything.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim

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Jim - He wouldn't have got the MC for the Boer War as it only instituted by Royal Warrant on 28th December 1914 and the first MCs gazetted were on the 1st January 1915.

I ran a check on SDGW and there isn't a mention of an MC or even an MM.

He was born in Eccles, Manchester and enlisted in Rotheram.

Hope this helps.

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I sadly suspect this is one of the thousands of errors that were made when the CWGC database was made. Another common one is to see the rank of Adjutant was part of the name!

I would report it to CWGC and see what their records show.

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Lee & Paul,

Thanks for the replies, I've sent an email to the CWGC website, but not too hopeful regarding a response-still waiting on my Connaught Ranger, died in January 1915 who is on the Helles Memorial.

With him I'm pretty sure the date of death is incorrect, but its the same in Soldiers Died, I guess we'll see.

Jimki

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I've reported lots of errors etc to CWGC and they seem to do nothing about it. I sent a reminder a couple of days ago about a soldier whose age is given as 6! Maybe I'm wrong and he got into the bantams...

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Chris,

Its unfortunate the CWGC seems to have encountered so many problems with their records. Obviously it can't be an easy task with the numbers of men they are tasked to remember, but I can't but help feel there is a lack of willingness to change anything in their records no matter how crazy the mistake is.

There are under budget constraints, but one would hope they would act upon leads from interested third parties or family members.

All the best,

Jim

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I too have found the CWGC show a reluctance to change their records when shown that they are incorrect.

I have a 1915 Trio and Memorial Plaque to a member of the 1st Bn CEF, his records state the date he was killed and in which trench system he was in when it happened, the CWGC show the date as 9 days previous. I sent them the details from the Battalion's records but nothing was done.

I fully understand the problems they must face with the amount of information flowing into their offices, especially as more and more people become interested in the Great War but when the written proof is presented to them I would have thought they would accept it.

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Over the summer I've had some correspondence with the CWGC about getting an uncle commemmorated who seems to have been missed off, and they seem to have taken everything very seriously and professionally. When I wrote I included a copy of his death certificate and his Medal Index Card and have recently had a reply from them which ended:

'In view of the above, I have passed your letter to our Records Section, who will look into the matter and they will forward your nomination to the Ministry of Defence for consideration. As soon as a decision has been made we shall be in contact again.'

So they know he lived, they know he served and they know he died - let's hope the 'decision' is the right one!

Cheers

Joe

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The following web-site is well worth a visit: ‘Campaigners for War Grave Commemorations’: www.cwgc.co.uk

This site is dedicated to the identification & commemoration of those missing from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's registers & the correction of erroneous & misleading service details.

Alan Seymour

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I suppose it was inevitable that mistakes would be made but my own experience was that the CWGC would put things right if errors are pointed out to them. However, I should qualify this as they corrected a local man's commemoration on the Pozieres memorial but never changed the cemetery register or on-line information! You can't have everything, I suppose!

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My experience has been mixed. I was able to get them to reengrave the headstone of Private John Glass 87th Bn CEF to correct his date of death by a day. He is in Neuville St. Vaast #2 at Vimy Park. On another occasion I gave them the cause of death of Private George Sinnock Godsall, same battalion ( I had obtained the records of every man mentioned in Alexander McClintock's book Best O' Luck). They basically told me they could care less but then added the information.

Recently you may have followed a thread here about a man in Boulougne Eastern with two headstones, problem being there was another with none. The man with two had last had his replaced in 1955 so it's likely the mistake has been on the ground for them to see for nearly 50 years! That's poor. Further, when I reported this they took a look and said they could not find this. I had neglected to record the name but told them exactly where it was. Hedley Malloch took a look, there it was, Private Patrick Farley. Terry Denham figured out who the other man would be usning the register.

On the plus side Roy Hemington of CWGC France has replied to emails immediately and is responding to give Private Ward a headstone by Easter. Good work.

I am going to write an article about this for the WFA Bulletin and intend to be pretty uncritical but it's easy to see it could be done otherwise.

CWGC is a very mixed bag, some quite good others poor.

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