First World War casualty Frank Dent (General)

by HarryBrook , Sunday, April 06, 2014, 11:02 (3680 days ago) @ Jefff

Jeff,
Looking at a good sample of medal index cards to men on the Cinderford War Memorial there appeared to be a convention that if he was entitled to the trio of medals, i.e. 1914 or 1915 Star as well as the British War Medal and Victory medals, then a cause of death was noted in the "Remarks" box on the card. Of the sample looked at, in one case death was not noted, the box being blank, so you cannot say this convention was followed in 100% of cases. On some cards a date of death was also noted. Where a cause of death is given i.e. k.i.a. or d.o.w. it would appear, from those looked at, to be accurate. There was one note as 'deceased', but he is on the Menin Gate so his cause of death could probably not be categorically stated as k.i.a. or d.o.w., and his death was assumed at a later date. So again not 100%.
Of those entitled only to the pair, i.e. the British War Medal and Victory Medal very few have death and cause noted in the "Remarks" box. So it would appear the convention was not to record this for those with this medal entitlement.
There is nothing on Frank Dent's card.
A better source for finding basic cause of death (k.i.a., d.o.w., or 'died') is "Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919" available on Ancrestry and findmypast.

I will give the Double View Secondary School Memorial some thought. It would be difficult to photograph since it consists of a wooden shield with a silver round centre piece depicting gardening and smallholding activities and around the periphery small individual silver shields bearing the former pupil's name, where he died, and a date e.g. "S. G. ANNETTS FRANCE 7.10.17". I understand the boys kept pigs at the school and the animals were sold to fund the memorial. I did have a list of the names and details and did research it before the days of online records. I will have a look at rebuilding this list and try to ensure it is complete.