dean1 Posted July 3, 2010 Share Posted July 3, 2010 I have posted this in 'Sheffield Discussions' but thought it wise to put here as well. last November at Beaucamps Ligny, west of Lille, 15 sets of remains were found. The items with them and the place where they were found indicate they were from the 2nd Bn. York & Lancs Regt. There are 58 candidates for these remains. 12 of these men were born in Sheffield. 2 resided here. 17 others were from various parts of Yorkshire, including Leeds, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley. There is a campaign started to get DNA results from surviving family to compare against the remains so as to formally recognise them. It is hoped that the results could lead to the indentification of most, if not all, of the fifteen sets of remains, and that then each man can be buried in his own named CWGC grave. To help the campaign please write or e-mail your local MP expressing your wish that money should be made available to carry out a programme of testing. As you may be aware there was a similar programme of DNA testing for the 250 Australian and British bodies found at Fromelles. Here with a 'loose' template of such a letter, please feel free to express your own views as well - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xxxx xxxxx MP House of Commons London SW1A 0AA Dear RE: RECOVERY OF THE BODIES OF FIRST WORLD WAR SOLDIERS As you are probably aware a new Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Fromelles is due to be opened on 19 July next with the burial of the last soldier of the 250 recovered from the mass burial pits at Pheasant Wood. A significant number of the 250 soldiers have already been successfully identified thanks to the respective Australian and British governments endorsing a DNA testing programme so that samples from the living relatives of missing soldiers can be matched with those of the recovered remains. Another significant mass burial site was uncovered last November in the small village of Beaucamps Ligny just west of Lille consisting of fifteen British soldiers killed in the early stages of the First World War. The location of the remains and the artefacts found with them indicate that they are drawn from soldiers of the 2nd Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment who were killed in action between 18 – 25 October 1914 but have no known graves. There are only 58 soldiers that fall into this category thereby creating a discreet and workable group for DNA testing along the lines of the much larger Fromelles project. All the indications are that if such a programme was adopted then most, if not all, of the fifteen soldiers could be buried in named graves. I would like to call upon your help to ensure that the Ministry of Defence meets its obligations to these soldiers and that they will not be consigned to permanent anonymity because they are of another generation. I would very much appreciate your eliciting a commitment from Andrew Robathan, the Minister for Defence, Personnel and Veterans, that a DNA testing programme of the 58 missing soldiers relatives will be undertaken to secure the identification of the recovered fifteen sets of remains. Thank you for your assistance. Yours sincerely -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BORN SHEFFIELD - 7589 James William Andrew 7208 John Brameld 7689 George Edward Darrington 7196 Joseph Carter Dunn 7147 Horace Foster 7775 Frank Hadfield 7794 Joseph Halliday 8225 James Wilfred Loukes 10356 Albert Pearson 7823 John James Puttrell 7156 Charles White 8624 Philip Wolstenholme RESIDED SHEFFIELD - 9159 Francis Carr Dyson 8259 Henry William Parker A large family tree has been started on Ancestry. I have images of - Andrew Darrington Dunn Loukes Pearson I hope you feel strongly enough about this to give us your support, regards Dean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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