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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

In From The Cold - 09.11.07


Terry Denham

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CWGC added the following 'new' WW1 casualty to its Debt of Honour database today – Friday 9th November.

Pte Evan Richard REES

18114 Welsh Regt

Died 18.11.15 Age 26

Commemoration: Loos Memorial, France

NOT FORGOTTEN

This case was put forward by GWF on behalf of member, stevem, on 04.10.07.

He can relate the story.

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May He Rest In Peace

I must say this week has been excellent for bringing the lad in from the cold

Chris

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I recently saw a scan of part of a page from the GRO Overseas Death Index on the Lost Generation website. I compared the names on the Index with those on the CWGC website and couldnt find Evan Rees. I confirmed with Terry that Evan wasnt listed and ordered the death certificate. Terry put Evan's name forward to CWGC and he has now been accepted.

Evan's listing on SDGW is as follows:

"18114 Evan Richard Rees, 9th Welsh Regt. KIA 18.11.1915 Born Cilfyndd Glam. Enlisted Pontypridd, residence Abercynon, Glam."

Steve

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Well done Steve.

If only we could do a proper cross-reference of the GRO against CWGC, I reckon we'd find a goodly number. Then we'd just need a kindly and wealthy benefactor to cough up some dosh for the death certs.

John

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Indeed, I agree with John (above). It's not rocket science is it? The official agencies have no interest in finding these men, It's hard enough getting them to even discuss the subject. It's a disgraceful situation and nothing is likely to change in the near future because no one is interested in paying for the work to be done. Wouldn't it be nice if we (the non com club forum members) were given this task and a new agency formed just for this purpose? But it aint going to happen because we are all mere "amateurs"! The so called professionals wouldn't allow us to impede on their territory. Goes to show how insincere all these politicians are every Remembrance Sunday doesn't it - they all make me sick. You couldn't make it up...

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If only we could do a proper cross-reference of the GRO against CWGC, I reckon we'd find a goodly number.

Well done Steve.

Only a mere 4,885 pages of GRO to scan. You scan em and I'll write the software to check em! Actually I did select one page at random a while back. I did not find any missing but there were about ten differences in either name spelling or regiment number on just one page, so quite a bit of work to cross reference. I think Terry Denham said he was finding about 1 in 600 missing. So possible a few hundred could be found in the entire series.

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The scanning would have a very high failure rate as some of the microfilm pages have very poor reproduction. It would be down to the Mark One Eyeball!!! This is assuming that the pages on the CDs are the same quality as those available to GRO in the originals.

Also, remember that the GRO Overseas Index does not cover British service deaths in the UK (other than RN), dominion and colonial casualties or civilian services (Mercantile Marine etc). Also, no post-discharge deaths are included.

John and I discussed this at some length a while ago - even to the extent of drafting a rough plan of action. However, the task became more and more daunting even without the £7 cost per death certificate. However, I did get two men recognised from the relatively few pages I completed.

The project has not been abandoned though. It's simply dormant pending more thought.

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I am working my through the letter U to see how many I can find. I selected U as there are only 7 pages to work through. I will report back whem I have finished.

Steve

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I am working my through the letter U to see how many I can find. I selected U as there are only 7 pages to work through. I will report back whem I have finished.

I selected a page at random about a year ago. I think around 10 or so could not be matched in either the name or number due to errors in either field or source. Eventually I found them all present.

If this is a problem, remember my search engine can find matches on service numbers, or fragments of numbers. Enter U in the name field, select 'begins with' (or enter a fragment of the name and select 'contains') and select a date range as appropriate (for example 01/01/1917-31/12/1917 to cover the year 1917). Might help. Good luck!

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