Commonwealth War Graves Commission

[AnneC]

I expect most people will be aware of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, but here's the link for reference.

We commemorate the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two world wars.Our cemeteries, burial plots and memorials are a lasting tribute to those who died in some 153 countries across the world.Our Register records details of Commonwealth war dead so that graves or names on memorials can be located.

Details given can include age, rank, date of death, next of kin name & address as well as cemetery details and photographs.

 

[MarionK]

An excellent website. It came in very handy when planning our trip to France & Belgium last year. Found lots of distant relations in cemeteries which we then visited.

 

[Katie Bee]

This is a very useful site.
The grave reference and Cemetery plans allowed my daughter to find my great uncle's grave in the Belgium Cemetery while she was on a World War I school trip.

 

[Norman]

There is also a service, The War Graves Photographic Project, that specialises in photographing individual war graves. It runs in association with the the CWGC. I was able to purchase a copies of images of an uncle's war grave in Gibralter.

 

[AdrienneQ]

Thanks for the Link. I already had info on my great uncle and by just putting in the surname was able to find him

I have always felt that his death was very tragic as having been in the trenches (below are the records for December 1917) he was actually killed in his Billet when it was shelled (28 men were killed & 40 wounded)

Link to War Dairy

In the Field 1.12.17 Battln. holding Centre Subsection - Situation normal - 2 ORs seriously wounded and died
" 2.12.17 Relieved by 21st Middlesex Rgt & marched back to Belfast Camp ERVILLERS
" 3.12.17 Battln. left ERVILLERS at 10/30am marched to BARASTRE & occupied billets
" 4.12.17 Standing to to move at very short notice from BARASTRE. Lewis Gun Class firing
" 5.12.17 Marched to TINCOURT & billeted there for the night
" 6.12.17 Battln. marched to ST EMILIE
" 7.12.17 Occupied posts at Support Outpost Line in front of ST EMILIE from 5.0am to 9.0am & then returned to Billets. Equipment Checked. Battln. left ST EMILIE & relieved the 1st R. Dublin Fusiliers in the Left Section
" 8.12.17 Battln in Left Section - Situation normal
" 9.12.17 Situation normal - Repairing trenches etc. - wiring parties at night
" 10.12.17 Situation quiet during the day - Trenches cleaned etc. During enemy bombardment at night about 25 Germans seen by our post W. side of LEMPIRE RD. proceeded towards PRIEL CUTTING. About 1/2 an hour later portion of this party when returning towards CATELET COPSE, was bombed by our post & also fired on by our Lewis Gun. 2 of the enemy were killed & several believed wounded (identification obtained) 2 of our men were wounded. For gallant conduct the M. Medal was awarded to 1498 Cpl Bolton C. by Corps Commdr. & Parchment Certificate to 4 other ranks by GOC Divn.
" 11.12.17 Trenches repaired. Enemy artillery active shelling front line from PRIEL FARM to CATELET COPSE (50 shells 3" calibre) Our machine guns active during night. Patrol went to PRIEL FARM & were fired on from vicinity of EAGLE QUARRY
" 12.12.17 Battln. relieved in evening by 7/8 R. Innis. Fus. & returned to billets at ST EMILIE. Billets shelled & 28 men killed & 40 wounded. Capt. Vernon & 1 OR wounded during relief. Battln moved out of billets & occupied Railway Cutting.

 

[Vonderene]

May I recommend the website run by Pierre Vandervelden Inmemories which is very much worth a look. His team travel the cemeteries within reach of his home in Belgium and have a fantastic collection of photographs and information. I first saw his site just before a planned visit to my grand uncle's grave near Bethune and contacted him via his site. Imagine my surprise when, after my return, I looked again at the record and saw a new photograph of Edward Arthur Bradford's grave, on it was the poppy I had left only days before. He must have visited very shortly after!

 

[AdrienneQ]

Thanks you so much for the link I was able to find Andrew and the details included his service number.
On Googling it I go to War Graves Photographic project where I fond a picture of his grave.

 

[Britjan]

I just wanted to alert everybody with an interest in CWGC graves that a new project is being undertaken by the volunteers at Lives of the First World War to make sure that all those who served and have a record at CWGC also have a Lives entry. If anybody has a a personal connection and/or interest in a particular CWGC cemetery please let me know. My particular interest of course is in marshaling the Canadian contingent.

 

[Britjan]

I recently came across another useful feature in the downloadable attachments to individual entries at CWGC. The headstone documents sometimes indicate the name and address of the person providing the information. This is not necessarily the person(s) who will be recorded on the headstone. Here's an example. There are two pages for the headstone documents, the useful information was on the second page.

 

[Britjan]

Not to be a broken record by posting in various spots on the forum but I wanted to alert anyone interested to the new format of CWGC . My previous posting shows in the new format but it's worth checking any reference to ensure it's still valid.

 

[peter]

Did you know that some of the CWGC records are now online at Ancestry?

 

[At home in NZ]

The CWGC records in Ancestry are from Find a Grave where membership is free.

 

[peter]

The CWGC records in Ancestry are from Find a Grave where membership is free.

All of the records are free at the CWGC site. Are you sure that Ancestry have taken their information from FindaGrave, as they don't credit them and the format seems very different?

 

[At home in NZ]

Ancestry does use FindaGrave info in their record and, the record provides a link to the FindaGrave memorial.

I have a second uncle, Frederick Tyler, who was killed in action on 6 May 1915 at Gallipoli. He was a colour sergeant with the Royal Marines. I found him in the CWGC site.

I have my tree in Ancestry (it is private) and one of the Hints for Frederick was for his FindaGrave memorial. I agree the format in FindaGrave is different but the grave information is the same.

If you want to compare CWGC with FindaGrave:
Frederick is Find A Grave Memorial# 56022416 which was created by: CWGC/ABMC
In CWGC, go to find war dead and enter Tyler, F and Turkey then search.

I have another relative at Find A Grave Memorial# 13297614, created by International War Graves.
In CWGC, search for Lamb, G and Plymouth War Memorial, you will see that the record has his parent's names which are not in FindaGrave.
The photo of the panel with his name on, although his name is not easily located, is in FindaGrave but not in CWGC, .

I like how we can download a memorial certificate from the CWGC site, something that is not available in FindaGrave.

 

[Sue_3]

I'm just revisiting the CWGC site after a long gap and I'm really struggling with it.

I can't find search results that I have found previously. Moreover I can't find people that I know ought to be there / were there / are there.

Please can anyone help me with this as I feel as though I might be losing my mind?

 

[At home in NZ]

I feel as though I might be losing my mind?

I feel like that often, you are not alone.
The CWGC site has changed, this link will take you to the page to look for war dead. Enter the minimum of information such as last name and one other field.
I have to use different criteria now in order to find G Lamb in my thread #14.
Good luck

 

[Sue_3]

It's very confusing.

If I search for Bainbridge, James, WW1, I get 1000 pages of results, most of which are NOT for people called James Bainbridge, nor even for people called Bainbridge or James?

I want to be able to find all the people with the surname Bainbridge and a forename containing James or just the initial J. How do I do this, now, please?

I'm looking for my grandmother's brother James Bainbridge, born 1878 in Warton, Lancs, last seen in the 1901 census but still alive in 1911, according to his parents' census entry. My mother told me that she thought her mother had lost a brother in WW1, and my maternal grandmother had no other brother alive after 1900. My mother (b. 1919) died in 1979 and was survived in that generation only by her younger brother (b. 1921,) who had never heard of James.

I last went through all of the James / J Bainbridges killed in WW1 on the CWGC site a few years ago and wanted to revisit them in light of newer information.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer with this.

 

[At home in NZ]

I last went through all of the James / J Bainbridges killed in WW1 on the CWGC site a few years ago and wanted to revisit them in light of newer information.

In view of the way the website has been upgraded and altered it's not looking like this is possible. Using Bainbridge J and WW1 I get a list of every Bainbridge in their data base including some whose anmes do not begin with J. There is only one James Bainbridge among them.
Using Bainbridge James and WW1 the results are similar but James is first in the list and appears to be the only James.
It is possible to download all results, if you know how to use filters in Excel I suggest you do that. You might also want to contact CWGC to express your concerns.

 

[Sue_3]

I have just dug out my search results from 2003. When I searched then for "Bainbridge, J, WW1" (that's what I wrote on the printout, I don't know what the field I put 'J' in was called at the time) I got 28 results, including one called James Bainbridge, one called James Scott Bainbridge and several with just J who turned out to be James when checked against other records.

The worrying thing is that I cannot find some of these now if I tick the WW1 box. For example, James Scott Bainbridge, died 22/03/1918, only appears in the results if I don't tick the WW1 box, although he certainly did die in WW1 (not just from the date, his death is documented elsewhere).

I suppose I can work backwards from my 2003 printout, but I had hoped to get an up-to-date list as my starting point.

After some trial and error I think that what I have to do is search for anyone with the surname Bainbridge, then sort the results by Initials (A -Z) ... that seems to bring all of the potentially relevant names together, then I can just filter out the non WW1 deaths myself.

I do know how to download and filter using EXCEL so I might give that a go.

However I think I will also, perhaps first, fill in the contact form on the CWGC site, explain the problem and attach a photo of my old results. Perhaps they can explain what has changed and advise whether I am using the right search criteria now?

[Oh no, how did it get to be 03:30!! I need to get some sleep ... ]

 

[At home in NZ]

After some trial and error I think that what I have to do is search for anyone with the surname Bainbridge, then sort the results by Initials

While you are asleep:
I tried experimenting, if I ask for Bainbridge James and tick the exact match fields I just get one James Bainbridge. and no other names in the result.
If I ask for Bainbridge with initial J and tick the exact match fields I get all Bainbridges with first names beginning with J .
I did ask for WW1 as well.
If this works, this link should give you my result.