MOD War Detectives (the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre Commemorations team); our future services, current appeals and past cases

Our future services, current appeals and past cases

Attend a full military honours funeral or rededication service

5 May 2022

10.30am at Loos British Cemetery. A Burial Service for:

Pte William Johnston, Royal Scots Fusiliers, killed in action 26 September 1915 and

An Unknown Soldier of the East Yorkshire Regiment, killed in action 26 September 1915.

17 May 2022

11.00am at Montcornet Military Cemetery, France. A Rededication Service for Lt Frederick Hornby Lever Rushton, MC, of 2nd battalion Royal Irish Regiment. Killed in action 15 September 1914.

18 May 2022

11.30am at Queen’s Cemetery, Bocquoy, France. A Rededication Service for Pte John Martin Roberts of the North Irish Horse. Killed in action 21 August 1918.

19 May 2022

10.30am at New Irish Farm Cemetery, Ypres. A Rededication Service for Capt Hugh Mortimer Travers, DSO, of 5th battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers (attached to 2nd battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regiment). Killed in action 8 November 1914.

2.30pm at White House Cemetery, Belgium. A Rededication Service for Sjt Frederick Cardy of 7th/8th battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers. Killed in action 11 to 12 August 1917.

27 May 2022

1pm at Esquelbecq Military Cemetery, France. A Rededication Service for Second Lieutenant Piers Richard Edgcumbe of Royal Armoured Corps. Killed in action 27 May 1940.

Can you help us find the family of casualties from the Great War?

Over the last couple of years, the remains of three Scottish soldiers have been discovered in France. All were recovered with artefacts that give us a good idea of who they were. We’re now looking for their families so that we can confirm their identities by DNA comparison. If you can help us with the whereabouts of any surviving family, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Please contact us via DBS-MODWarDetectives@mod.gov.uk.

Pte David Gemmell; 1st Battalion, Black Watch; killed in action 25 January 1915

David Gemmell was born in 1869 in Dundee to David Gemmell (1824 to 1904) and Mary Cable (1824 to 1902). He was the youngest of eight children; his siblings were:

• Helen (born 1849)
• Eliza, Jean and Jane (all listed as born in 1861)
• Jessie (1866 to 1948)
• Joan/Johanna (born 1855)
• Georgina (born 1864)

The 1891 Census shows him aged 22 and living with his parents at Hilltown in Dundee. By the time of the next Census in 1901 he was a plumber and lodged in a house in Stobcross Street, Glasgow.

Three of David’s sisters married:

• Jessie, married George Williamson and they had three sons, George (1896 to 1952), James (1899 to 1971) and Edwin (1903 to 1976)
• Joan/Johanna married Jesse Carr in 1875 in Dundee
• Eliza married Andrew Petrie Thomson

Pte George Brown; 1st Battalion, Black Watch; killed in action 25 January 1915

George Brown was born in 1879 in Beath, Fife, Scotland to Archibald Brown and Elizabeth (known as Eliza or Lizzie) Drybur. He was one of nine children and his siblings were:

• Mary (born 1870)
• Eliza (born 1872)
• Christina (born 1874)
• Isabella (born 1876)
• Catherine (born 1881)
• Thomas (born 1884)
• Janet (born 1886)
• Archie (born 1889)

The War Detectives believe only George himself seems to have married. His wife was Elizabeth Scott and they had one daughter, Mary, who was born in 1910.

Pte John Wilson; 6th Battalion, Black Watch; killed in action 30 July 1916

Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) records do not give an age, date of birth or next of kin for Pte Wilson and there are no service records available at the National Archives. Documentation held by other sources contains no more information aside from telling the War Detectives that Pte Wilson was born in Gowanhill, Lanarkshire.

Initial research into his family states that he was one of three children born to William and Grizel Hope Wilson (nee Brown). He had two sisters:

• Helen Hutchison Wilson (commonly known as Helen Brown). She was born in Hutchesontown, Lanarkshire in 1891 and is believed to have married George Stewart in Dennistoun in 1921. She died in 1968.
• Little is known of his other sister, Janet Wilson, other than that she was born in about 1890 in Govan.

Our Past Cases

Details of some of the MOD War Detectives’ past cases can be found below:

• Burial of Pte William Johnston and an unknown East Yorkshire Regiment soldier

• Blessing service in Italy for Flying Officer Arnold Hallas

• Unknown WW2 British Soldier buried in Italy.

• Graves of Rifleman (Rfn) Albert George Sleet, Lieutenant (Lt) Wilfrid Ashton Piercy and Serjeant (Sjt) James Gration DCM rededicated in France.
• Graves of 2Lt Sam Hughes and CSM David Jones DCM rededicated in northern France
• Final resting place of Yorkshire Regiment soldier identified more than a century after his death
• Nine soldiers of the Great War buried a century after their deaths
• WW1 soldier identified by his medal ribbons laid to rest in the presence of his family
• Two unknown soldiers of the Great War finally buried
• Royal Flying Corps Observer’s grave finally identifed
• British soldiers killed during WW2 are honoured as they are laid to rest
• Services held for 2 Welsh brothers in arms killed during the Great War
• Grave of Royal Welsh Fusilier identified a century after his death in the Great War
• Family of World War 1 soldiers attend their relatives’ funeral a century after they gave their lives.

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