Buried Soldiers of WW1

[LarryH57]

A rather strange question - but when the Imperial War Graves Commission (now CWGC) buried the unidentified dead from WW1 how much of a persons remains did they need to constitute a body? I've just returned from a tour of the Western Front with my son, who wondered if there could have been an element of double counting if say a head was found, then an upper torso and then a separate lower torso. Could these end up as three 'Soldiers of the Great War known unto God'? What were the rules for this situation and also for smaller body parts. Was a hand or a foot found on the battlefield during or after WW1 also buried in a grave with a headstone, or dealt with in another manner.

[cosrec]

i cant answer your question directly but in the early 80s i attended an accident involving a truck loaded with chipboard that rolled over and skidded for a huge distance on its side the doctor at the scene could not issue a death certificate at that time although it was known who the driver was as there was not was enough percentage of to estimated body weight or recognisable vital organs present

Edited August 26, 2013 by cosrec

[Bob Grundy]

Larry, I would think that answers and opinions regarding the burial of remains is likely to be found on the Great War Forum.

[Snapper]

You can look on the Great War Forum but I can tell you the things I know. When my Uncle Leslie was killed with two others on 23.08.1915 the three of them were buried in a single grave. They were killed by shellfire. As I know from my experience of battlefield travels over many years the bodies were intact enough for them to be identified but not enough was left to constitute individual burials at the time. However, in 1921 when the cemetery where they are buried was formally layed out by the IWGC - they were separated and my uncle was even buried further away from his mates by several feet. It's easier with individuals who can be identified.

 

As far as I understand it the graves registration people clearing up in the post war period would not make individual graves for an arm and a leg or a hand. They were often made into group graves - hence how you occasionally find graves with eight, nine, ten in. If you go to places like CONNAUGHT at Thiepval Wood, you will see them. But these can also be where groups of individuals were badly smashed up by shellfire and constituted more than just a limb - but also where the burial parties took time over their dead - and in front of the Thiepval redoubt and the Schwaben redoubt was not such a place for many, weeks if not months in 1916 - but getting to these casualties was impossible. The fact is, there is no real hard and fast rule. Burial teams worked in their own ways but to general guidelines and mores of the time.

 

I would imagine some graves of named people and odd un-named graves have the odd extra limb added here and there. We know from the work done by teams of dedicated people, how many graves are incorrect, not just spellings - but the wrong people - but also how many people are not registered AT ALL. It was all about clearing up. This was grim work done in hard times. Clearing these battlefields - moving small cemeteries into the bigger concenctration types - what horrible work. But it was done - the battlefields were cleared by the Fijian, Egyptian, South African and Chinese Labour Corps and so on, and led by amazing people. If you go to the cemetery at Sangatte you find THEIR graves. Where they died maybe from influenza or accidents - or where the Chinese sometimes killed each other in fights over gambling... colourful - but real.

A lot of the detail is lost... and there are places where a lot of men are said to still rest - undiscovered and never will be... the appetite isn't there. Farming comes first in France, especially.

 

MB

Edited August 26, 2013 by Snapper

[Tony B]

A rather grusome fact is that in CWWG and other Allied cemetries, you maInly get single burials, also if German casualties are buried there. In specific German cemetrys group burial is often the case. This dates back to an understandable feeling at the time, that Enemy dead wern't wanted on the lands they had occupied. As Mark says a lot are still out there. It depends on wether you look at a place as sacred, or where you live, raise a family and want to improve your life. If anyone knows the answer, what numbers will win the Lottery next week?

Edited August 26, 2013 by Tony B

[Tony B]

This has intrigued me so I've done searching about and asking them who would know. The answer is if a body part is one that the person couldn't live without. It is a body and is buried as such. So a limb, which could have ben removed surgically but you could survive without, is not a body. A skull however is.