unmarked graves ww1

[conch542]

hi, i have been tracing my great uncle:
martin Edwards, 104849
royal field artillery
wounded 17/04/1917
died 18/04/17
place, Monchy – le – preux, france just outside Arras
i was wondering if anyone can tell me if he would have been buried in an unmarked grave in that area.
his name is on a monument at PLOEGSTEERT
thanking you
kevin

[Lesley Robertson]

It’s complicated. Many of the dead were buried close to where they fell or the aid station where they died, mostly with wooden markers. At the end of the war, when the land might have been fought over more than once, the scattered graves were collected into the rows of grey or white stones that we know today. Obviously, many of the bodies were no longer identifiable and their graves are normally marked with an appropriate text “Known unto God” or somesuch. You sometimes see stones giving a regiment where, presumably, fragments of uniform were found. Inevitably, some graves were lost but many (most?) of the men listed on the memorials lie under those nameless stones.
If you have read about the Somme and similar battles, you will know that some casualties left nothing behind to bury, though.

The short answer - his grave is probably marked by a nameless stone, but there is always a chance, depending on what happened, that it isn’t. people did their best.

Have you looked at the CWGC site for Ploegsteert Cemetery? They usually tell you a little about the general background to the men buried there.

[conch542]

thanks Lesley, keep up the good work you do
kevin

[Peter Goodey]

The CHGC site explains the situation with memorials - "Individuals are commemorated in this way when their loss has been officially declared by their relevant service but there is no known burial for the individual, or in circumstances where graves cannot be individually marked, or where the grave site has become inaccessible and unmaintainable."