Researching WW2 Armed Forces & Civilian Casualties (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Friday, February 01, 2013, 16:05 (4315 days ago) @ HarryBrook

Thanks Harry, I knew someone far more expert than I would know.
Forgive me as I'm not the brightest spark, just to make it perfectly clear am I right you're saying that these Death Certificates are the exact same format/system as would be issued for all Deaths registered in the UK regardless of cause or timing, ie they're not "special" ones issued at Wartime (like the WW1 Death Plaques) which was what I was mistakenly thinking of ?

Re searching FindMyPast, as a reminder to me I've just revisited the National Archives link I posted earlier, I see they clearly have a tie-in with the FindMyPast site, their search link for the British Army Roll of Honour 1939-1945 is actually a straight link into the FMP website, namely
http://www.findmypast.co.uk/army-roll-of-honour-1939-1945-search-start.action?product=ARH
As usual this will give a list of possible "hits" but buying credits (or hopefully not via the public library) will give further detail.

This reminds me of some mistakes I made which might help other researchers when I first tried searching my elderly mother's cousin "Ken Wright" who she thought had maybe been an RAF man. When I first searched him 18months ago I was confused as could find no likely hit on any of the websites I looked at including the above TNA/FMP ones. It really didn't help that I was inputting too much info, I strongly advise only search surname and first name initial, in true forces style. Searching "Ken" will not find any "Kenneths", but "K" finds nearly twenty...

Unusually because of my keen military interests I was searching him before I knew his full details such as a second name !, subsequently confirmed from the usual sources as I now know the full family tree. This rather helped as I was surprised just how many Kenneth Wrights were listed with a few from Glostershire !. Similarly the site asks for place of birth, but often the Military Records won't reflect this, and the quoted "Place of Residence" will often be the County barracks, in this case Bristol, not the actual family Forest home. Even visiting their home village didnt help me, his name is on the Village Memorial but perhaps oddly no hint as to which service. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/143380

I subsequently concluded he served in the Army. Despite searching several sites including the Roll of Honour, in truth I've found most information has come from the excellent (and free) CWGC site, once I'd found him that is (needed full initials!). As an example here is his entry:

WRIGHT, KENNETH LEONARD
Rank:Private
Service No:5183494
Date of Death:19/05/1940
Age:21
Regiment/Service:Gloucestershire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Panel ReferenceColumn 57.
Memorial: DUNKIRK MEMORIAL
Additional Information:

The site lists 30 K.Wrights within WW2 Records alone, buried across the World. One is an RAF man in Singapore I saw before I knew Ken had a second name, but luckily for us this chap was soon discounted - within the "additional information" section for him the site quoted his parents & address in Derby, so not our man. Such next of kin details is the norm for this last line, but sadly many entries don't have anything here at all. Helpfully the age at death matched our Ken's known 1919 birthdate.
Its particularly nice that the CWGC site gives full details, maps and photos of each superbly-kept Cemetary, in this case within easy visiting distance for us to pay our belated but heartfelt respects.

I do hope other researchers may benefit from this site and maybe my pointers in the same way we did.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2768087/WRIGHT,%20KENNETH%20LEONARD

From this: "The DUNKIRK MEMORIAL stands at the entrance to the Commonwealth War Graves section of Dunkirk Town Cemetery. It commemorates more than 4,500 casualties of the British Expeditionary Force who died in the campaign of 1939-40 or who died in captivity who were captured during this campaign and who have no known grave."

By re-sorting the entries for the whole Cemetary we can find over sixty Glosters, of which fifteen died with Ken on the 19th May, but most at the end of May probably at Cassel(below).