Second question for the evening please

[brett361975]

If a casualty on the War graves commision is listed as unknown and you know his date of birth and therefore his age would they add it to the records? what sort of difinitave proof would you need?

Thank you

[brett361975]

Sorry that should read listed as aged unknown

[John_Hartley]

what sort of difinitave proof would you need?

You would certainly need the casualty's birth certificate and then, using only official documents, be able to prove that the child on the birth certificate is the casualty. Not as easy as it sounds, I suspect.

John

[brett361975]

Yes i guess that would be difficult, i suppose you cant go of there enlistment papers in case they lied?

[John_Hartley]

i suppose you cant go of there enlistment papers in case they lied?

You'd definately need the birth certificate.

It's then conclusively proving that the child is the soldier that would be the very difficult task. Does the CWGC record give names of next of kin? If so, then you might have a tie up with parents names on the birth certificate and, also, a link through on the enlistment papers. If you can't make that sort of link, don't bother starting down the road. But, if you can, good luck.

John

[Terry Denham]

To be honest this is not an essential piece of information for CWGC.

Age information was supplied by the relatives and some did - some didn't.

John is right that it is not as easy as it sounds. Having a birth certificate for someone does not prove that it is the same person as the serviceman. Ages in military records can vary and even relatives sometimes got it wrong.

CWGC would change an age that was grossly inaccurate with the right evidence but they would not get stressed about a year or two.

[brett361975]

What puzzles me is if the enlistee gave his date of birth when he joined up and he was then killed in the war why would the war graves commision list him as age unknown?. Shorly the army had his date of birth so why not list it? or does it mean that the soldier joined under age and lied about his age ?

A bit confused as to why my soldier is listed as aged unknown if the army had his records.

Born 1897 died 1916 making him 19.

Any thoughts please

[Terry Denham]

The army etc did not supply age info to CWGC. It was not regarded as a necessary piece of information for CWGC's purposes. In the same way they did not supply forenames - just initials.

As I said above, it was the relatives who supplied any age details when they returned their Final Verification Forms in the 1920s. Some supplied the details and some did not. Some did not return the form and some never received one as they had moved home etc.

Initially CWGC did not include ages on headstones but later reversed this policy when it became obvious that next-of-kin were supplying this detail in large numbers.

In your example above, without exact dates, your man could also have been 18. Also, there are many cases of relatives 'rounding up' ages on headstones - where a man was, say, twenty four and eleven months to twenty-five. There are many such anomalies when it comes to age!

[brett361975]

Question answered,

thank you

[John Morcombe]

Once upon a time, I had a good relationship with a certain lass at the CWGC. She accepted many age of casualty additions for RMLI DD 13/11/16 without evidence. My own man "Jack Clegg RMLI" KIA 13/11/16 now has his age listed (20), along with about 200 others. She didn't bother with the NoK though. She was likely wrong to do so, but glad she did. Just goes to show it's who you know in this world that counts.