Strange newspaper cuttings or events

[Guest KevinEndon]

A lot of pals will know that I am researching the men on Kilbirnie's war memorial but searching through newspapers for the period I came accross the following events which I find rather strange as the soldier in question is buried in Dud Corner.

Let me begin.

The soldier is Private S/10953 Adam Reid of the Cameron Highlanders.

There are a lot of newspaper cutting to this chap

Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald

08/10/1915

Among the wounded are:-

Private Adam Reid, Cameron Highlanders, wounded. Formerly in The Store, Glengarnock Steel Works.

(thats fine so far, now things don't add up)

Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald

29/10/1915

Mrs McNally, Co-operative Buildings, would be very grateful for any information about her son, Pte. Adam Reid. B Coy. 5th (Lochiel's) Cameron Highlanders, who has been unofficially, reported " died of wounds" on September 26.

Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald

03/03/1917

PRIVATE ADAM REID, CAMERONS.

(Missing: now presumed dead)

The mother of Pte. Adam Reid, has now been officially informed that her son, who has been reported missing since the battle of Loos on 25th September 1915, must now be presumed to be dead. Private Reid was the eldest son of the late Adam Reid, Co-operative Buildings, Glengarnock, formerly of Kirkconnell, Dumfriesshire. He was employed as a grocer with Mr R.W. Boyd in Glengarnock.

My question is that if he died as the CWGC say on the 25th September 1915, paper says died of wound on the 26th. He is buried in Dud Corner so why did his mother receive information that he is presumed dead in 1917. It doesn't add up. Surely if he was presumed dead then there would have been no body to bury and his name would have appeared on Loos Memorial.

Hope it all makes sense and you can put 2 and 2 together and come up with 4.

Kevin

[auchonvillerssomme]

Kevin

You probably know anyway but SDGW says KIA 25/09/15

Mick

[Terry Denham]

Kevin

You have to get the timescale right.

The CWGC information was not compiled until after 1917 at a time when the exact date of death was known or taken to be 25.09.15. When the info was given to the mother in 1917, it was not necessarily known or the date was still a presumption. His body could have been recovered post-1917 and the date was still possibly a presumption.

The discrepancy of one day in the newspaper is also not unusual and would probably be down to someone misreading a '5' for a '6' or vice versa.

[Audax]

'Dud Corner is a concentration cemetary : The only burials here during hostilities were those of four Officers of the 9th Black Watch and one Private of the 8th Royal Dublin Fusiliers, close to Plot III, Row B; the remainder of the graves were brought in later from small cemeteries and isolated positions near Loos and to the North. There are now nearly 2,000