Why here?

[Guest Andy Kellett]

Whilst visiting Beaumont Hamel British Cemetery recently I was puzzled by the burial of a Private Brant of the 2nd Queens here. The cemetery was made after the Battle of The Somme and the rest of the burials are from after July 1st 1916 and seem to be from units that fought in the immediate vicinity. Private Brant's date of death is given as 15th January 1915 which is long before British involvement in this area. If, as seems likely, he was buried elsewhere first why was he was moved to an essentially small battlefield cemetery rather than one of the concentration cemeteries.

Any suggestions please.

[Geoff Parker]

There's another example of this at Carnoy cemetery where there's a chap from

one of the Battalions of the London Regt and from memory he was a 1915 (or early 1916) casualty,

long before the London Divisions arrived on the Somme.

I assumed he had been moved there after the war because the cemeteries in the area where he fell

were closed by the time his body was recovered.

Geoff

[Hedley Malloch]

There is an artilleryman died 1/7/16 buried in Ferme Olivier (Ypres) CWGC who was apparently was killed in the battle of the Somme. I do not understand this at all. If he was KIA on the Somme, why bring him all the way to Ypres for burial? If he was wounded, why bring him to Ypres, and would it have been logistically possible anyway for him to have been wounded on 1/7/16 on the Somme and to have been brought to Ypres to die - all on the same day? It seems improbable.

Perhaps here, and the other two cases in this thread, someone has made a mistake about date or place of death. Don't believe all that is written on headstones and in registers.

[Paul Reed]

There's another example of this at Carnoy cemetery where there's a chap from

one of the Battalions of the London Regt and from memory he was a 1915 (or early 1916) casualty,

long before the London Divisions arrived on the Somme.

I think you will find this is a casualty of the 9th Londons who, then part of 5th Division, served at Carnoy for some time in 1915. It is therefore an original burial.

[Geoff Parker]

Paul

Thanks for that. I made a mental note of the name and Battalion when I visited

the cemetery last Easter with the intention of looking into it. Of course I then

promptly forgot what the details were before I had written them down.

Geoff

[Terry Denham]

Bodies were sometimes moved considerable distances during the concentration process although the Somme to Ypres is somewhat suspect.

Hedley is right that errors have occurred and oddities should always be investigated rather than taken at face value. (What is the name of the much travelled casualty, Hedley?)

[Tim Birch]

Bodies were sometimes moved considerable distances during the concentration process although the Somme to Ypres is somewhat suspect.

Did you happen to notice if anyone else with the name Brant was buried there? Efforts were sometimes made to move bodies of brothers killed at different times into the same cemetery.

Tim

[Hedley Malloch]

What is the name of the much travelled casualty, Hedley?

Terry,

520 Gunner William Freeman, died 1/7/16, 132nd Heavy Battery, RGA. I did not note the grave number.

Regards

[Guest Andy Kellett]

Tim,

I thought about a possible family connection as I remember reading about a body being moved from the Somme to Ypres to be buried next to his brother, but there was no one else called Brant there.

Cheers anyway

Andy.

[Andrew P]

I recall reading in one of Jon Laffin's books he mentions that an Australian who was killed on the Somme was buried near Paris which seemed quite strange.

I'll attempt to find the reference & book