Tag: Soldiers Graves Scandal

Soldiers’ Grave Scandal

The Soldiers’ Grave Scandal gathered momentum in the Fall of 1921 when the  Directorate of Graves Registration & Enquiries (D.G.R. & E.) and the Imperial War Graves Commission (I.W.G.C.) announced the end of the Burial Recovery Program. In 1957, the family of Private George Robert Sutherland 901861 shocked to learn their son’s grave, which they had understood buried at Orchard Dump Cemetery since 1920, was no longer there. Or was it?

CEFRG has determined the remains of Private Sutherland positively within the cemetery, recognized by a second headstone to an Unknown Canadian Soldier, like most of his comrades of the 25th Battalion at Orchard Dump Cemetery.

The Missing

Pvt Sutherland not recognized on the Vimy Memorial because technically, not among the Missing. The 11,285 soldiers named on the Vimy Memorial have No Known Grave in France. Similarly, nearly 6,983 Canadian Soldiers appear on the Menin Gate Memorial, commemorating 54,896 Missing having fallen in Belgium.

Simply put, Pvt Sutherland not recognized on the Vimy Memorial because he was once Known to be Buried.

Special Memorials

The Missing include the 11,285 named on Vimy, the 6,983 named on Menin, 743 soldiers and sailors commemorated on Special Memorials in France, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Russian Federation, Turkey, UK, and 5 others in the USA. A total of 19,016 casualties not commemorated with a Known Grave.

685 of these casualties, like Private George Robert Sutherland are recognized on Special Memorials in France and Belgium. They are not named on the Vimy or Menin Gate Memorials.

Known to have been Buried

If 19,016 casualties have no known grave, do they represent the missing? Yes, and no. The problem the 748 soldiers (not the sailors) commemorated by Special Memorials not duly reflected by the numbers of casualties Known to have been Buried on the Western Front. In fact, the burial records prove most of the 19,016 missing once buried by their comrades, or foe, on the battlefield. But, their graves, and/or bodies subsequently lost for any of the following reasons:

• Remains destroyed by shellfire
• Grave destroyed by shellfire
• Remains and grave destroyed by shellfire
• Lost grave marker
• Misplaced grave marker
• Desecrated graves

Private George Robert Sutherland eventually determined to have fallen into the first category – remains destroyed by shellfire. If so many buried, how come so few commemorated by Special Memorials? Lost, impromptu and isolated battlefield graves, by far the majority of the missing, never recognized as candidates for Special Memorials.

Mrs Minnie Sutherland

A binder in the CWGC Archives, CWGC/8/1/4/1/2/86 (CCM25613) provides some insight into the Soldier’s Grave Scandal. This binder begins with the I.W.G.C. contacting Pvt Sutherland’s mother in response to a request regarding the whereabouts of her sons remains.

On 26 November 1920, the IWGC writes Mrs Sutherland to inform:

• her son buried in Plot IX, Row B, Grave 22 of Orchard Dump Cemetery,
• the new (second) grave marked with a cross bearing all particulars (name, date of death, affiliation),
• the reburial made with appropriate religious services, and finally
• her request for a photo of the grave forwarded to the Officer in Charge of the Canadian War Graves Detachment, 30 Gledhow Gardens, Kensington, SW7.

Perhaps unknown to the Principal Assistant secretary, the Canadian War Graves Detachment disbanded in July of 1919 after only two months of service.

1957

Few Canadian families could afford to visit their loved ones on the Western Front following the war. The 1936 inauguration of the Canadian National Vimy Monument brought the first boatload of pilgrims. Many would take advantage of the trip to visit the cemeteries in the immediate vicinity of Vimy, and some made the trek to nearby Ypres to visit Flanders Fields. Not until 1957 however would the brother of Pte Sutherland choose to visit his grave.

Wooden Cross

Sutherland’s mother had passed away a few years before, but J A Sutherland reminded the IWGC his mother had shown him a photograph of the grave from 1921 bearing the original wooden cross with his particulars, as noted by the IWGC in 1920.

The Secretary-General wrote The Secretary of the IWGC on 22 January 1957, seeking to establish whether or not Pvt Sutherland’s remains could be positively located at Orchard Dump Cemetery.

2nd Canadian Divisional Cemetery, Willerval

A reply on 30 January 1957 mentions this case involved 15 Canadian soldiers once buried at the 2nd Canadian Divisional Cemetery in Willerval. Commemorated on Special Memorial number 17.

According to the Assistant Secretary, Sutherland’s grave “was subsequently lost”. Therefore, the reason for a Special Memorial which indicates no remains lay below the headstone. By 12 February 1957, C. B. Fuller informed the Sutherland family of the matter, and had received a phone call noting their displeasure. Fuller wrote back to the Secretary of the IWGC on this day.

Arbitrary Decision

As stated previously by CEFRG, the decision made by the I.W.G.C. in the 1920’s arbitrary, and inconsistent with current C.W.G.C. policy. A letter written to a Dr Ian M. Dron from Ruth (last name illegible) notes the decision regarding a Kipling Memorial (the Special Memorials) mentions “It rather looks as if an arbitrary decision was taken…”.

IWGC’s Position

Ruth adds a script to the letter, noting the IWGC’s position on the matter.

700th Labour Coy

Blame laid on the 700th Labour Coy.

The decision to mark the grave with only “Unknown Canadian Soldier” and no other particulars inconsistent. In this case, the particulars may have included a date of death, if all 15 soldiers known to have died on the same day. If not, at least a period or year, as the men commemorated with Special Memorials noting they fell in April 1917.

If all 15 men had belonged to the same Battalion, then 25th Battalion should also have been inscribed, as per the headstone of a 25th Bn soldier above. Instead the remainder of these soldiers have this type of headstone:

A handwritten response to the letter of 26-22-20 (CCM/51/25613) attempts to tell the truth. Only five of the 50 Canadians supposedly buried in Orchard Dump Cemetery recorded.

Without referring to the 700th Labour Coy, suggested only their battlefield crosses brought into Orchard Dump – the remains obliterated by shellfire.

Math perhaps not the author’s strongest skill – 38 of the 50 commemorated by Kipling Memorials, leaving 7 men unaccounted for.

The Plot Thickens

Dr Ian M. Dron asks Mrs Dean for a draft of a new letter to the Canadian Agency based on Mr Mayberry’s note on 27 February 1957. The letter now refers to 10 bodies, and not the 15 from Willerval. In addition, the total of 38 for the two Kipling’s reiterated, which has only been a fact for several decades.

Dr. Dron. CCM/25613

The draft changed to omit references to No. 700 Labour Coy. The final document, the reply to the Canadian Agency sent on 4 March 1957.

The Kicker – “The True Position”

“Unfortunately the original enquiry file has been destroyed.” The reason unknown. Many British service records held in the London Armoury destroyed by a fire in the Second World War. The I.W.G.C.’s documentation not known to have been among these records. CEFRG suggests the original enquiry file willfully destroyed to protect identities of those associated with this scandal.

The Only Explanation II

The Only Explanation III

The location of the graves in dispute at Orchard Dump are specified exactly within distinct plots of the cemetery. Such areas cannot in any way be confused with the perimeter walls of the cemetery which would have been the appropriate location for crosses knowingly brought in as ‘Memorial Crosses’.

Critical to the discussion, a Burial Return must contain and refer to some remains. A Burial Return cannot exist for a GRU wooden cross, or any artifact for that matter, other than human remains.

The I.W.G.C. suggests No. 700 Labour Coy had therefore erected crosses over no remains in 38 locations. Were the Officer’s of this unit court-martialled and charged with a crime in a military tribunal? Is that the reason the original Inquiry file ‘destroyed’?

How do we explain the 38 headstones that claim there is an Unidentified Canadian Soldier below it? The glaring inconsistency: two headstones erected at Orchard Dump Cemetery for each of these 38 soldiers that are, or are not, buried here. Still, entirely inconsistent with CWGC policy today.

Return to Willerval

There were two cemeteries at Willerval responsible for the two Kipling Memorials at Orchard Dump.

• 2ND CANADIAN DIVISION CEMETERY, WILLERVAL, midway between Vimy and Acheville, where 16 Canadian soldiers buried by the 2nd Canadian Division in May 1917.
• WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY (or VANCOUVER ROAD CEMETERY) made by the 2nd Canadian Division in May 1917, and containing the graves of 34 Canadian soldiers. It stood about midway between Vimy and Fresnoy. Sheet 44.T.28.a.4.6 according to the CoG, which is actually Sheet 36c.T.28.a.4.6.

Willerval Canadian Cemetery completely removed – not a trace exists today.

The Concentration of Graves files not examined in the CWGC Archive binder, but surely presented in the court of enquiry. These records, unlike the enquiry still exist. What do they tell us? The CWGC page for Private George Robert Sutherland contains the following artifacts:

Concentration of Graves (CoG)

Note the document signed by Lt R H Adams, Commanding No. 700 Labour Coy on 17 March 1920 (document received by the D.G.R.E on 15 May 1920). Nine of ten soldiers in Row B, Graves 21-30, identified by a cross with their particulars. Though a soldier in Grave 23 had no cross at Willerval Canadaian Cemetery, positively identified as a 25th Bn CEF soldier. This information critical to the case: If there was no cross with particulars, how could the remains have been identified as a 25th Bn soldier? Only one way, and this is through an exhumation which found the 25th Bn badge on the tunic, pocket, or shoulder strap of the soldier.

Graves Registration Report Forms (GRRF)

On 26 January 1921, the GRRF report from No. 1 District reveals nine of the ten soldiers of the 25th Bn, buried in Plot IX, Row B, Graves 21-30 have Individual Graves Unknown. This information also critical to the case, proving remains below the crosses, and all positively 25th Bn soldiers, though only one such grave identified as a 25th Bn soldier today (the original UCS of the 25th Bn). The wording is the key – the men are positively in IV.B.21-30, but their individual graves cannot be identified. Collectively, they do not qualify for a Special Memorial on the perimeter wall, especially of the type which suggests their graves were lost at Willerval Canadian Cemetery.

Two pages later in the Orchard Dump Cemetery GRRF Binder.pdf file, a Special Cross mentions a L/Cpl S. Young of the 15th Bn, Warwickshire Regiment. Note the wording, “Believed to be buried in this Cemetery, actual grave unknown.” This qualifies as a Special Memorial to be placed on the perimeter wall.

Special Memorial Cross No. 8

On 6 February 1924, four years following concentration to Orchard Dump Cemetery, J.R. Pitman, the Registration Officer for No. 2 & 3 Areas (formerly No. 1 District)instructed to register a Kipling Memorial to 13 soldiers of the 2nd Canadian Division – Special Memorial Cross No. 8. Note the following from the CoG file:

• The 25th Bn U.C.S. of IX.B.23 not moved.
• E. Page 25th Bn Can Inf must be 68096 PAYNE
• 712531 GALLANT must be 712531 Pte A G ALLAND

The Only Explanation I

The soldiers of the 25th Battalion should not be commemorated on the Special Memorials at Orchard Dump, but rather by headstones of the type “BURIED NEAR THIS SPOT” in IV.B.21-30. This would not have been an arbitrary decision inconsistent with CWGC policy. Following an examination of the service of Private George Robert Sutherland, a scenario described for a group of soldiers at Orchard Dump that did qualify for these types of graves – BURIED NEAR THIS SPOT. This decision not without precedent. See: Agricultural Issue at Orchard Dump below.

The Service of Private George Robert Sutherland

George Robert Sutherland 901861 enlisted 31 March 1916 with the 193rd Battalion at Shebenacadie, N.B. At 20 years of age, he stood 5′ 8″ tall, 160 pounds with clear complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. George a farmer from Gay’s River, Nova Scotia.

Pvt Sutherland embarked Halifax on 12 October 1916. Appointed A/Cpl upon arrival Witley Camp, but he reverted in rank in order to proceed overseas on 6 December 1916 with the 73rd Battalion. He was sick upon arrival in France and hospitalized at Le Havre.

25th Battalion

Private George Robert Sutherland transferred to the 25th Battalion on 24 February 1917, and assigned duty with the 2nd Entrenching Battalion on 5 March 1917. Following a month with the unit, he finally joined the 25th Battalion on 7 April 1917 along with 20 other ranks, just prior to the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The battalion at Maisnil-Bouche. Moving forward to the battle on 8 April 1917, 3 other ranks killed, and 15 other wounded.

Vimy Ridge

The 25th Battalion captured it’s objectives at Vimy with considerable cost. Major James Arnold DeLancey, leading the assault, killed along with two other officers. 43 other ranks killed, 105 wounded, 90 missing. However, Pvt Sutherland would survive his baptism on the battelfield.

The 25th Battalion finally relieved on 12 April 1917 and moved to Les Tilleuls.

Battle at Arleux-en-Gohelle

The 25th Bn would return to the front line on 26 April 1917, and two days later C and D Coys attacked enemy objectives at 4:25 am. D Company engaged in heavy bayonet fighting during first stage. Both companies would hold their objective, but with heavy casualties. Again, the leader of the assault, Lt R F Bell killed along with Lt J H Wallace of C Company. Over 100 other ranks killed, or wounded, including Private George Robert Sutherland.

Where are the 25th Bn Buried?

Only eight of the 27 killed on this day (28 April 1917) eventually buried in a CWGC cemetery. Thirteen, almost half, named on the VIMY MEMORIAL having No Known Grave.

CABARET-ROUGE BRITISH CEMETERY, SOUCHEZ

Privates Gordon Victor Mackie and H B Moore’s remains found at 36c.T.23.d.30.35 along with six other men of the 25th Battalion by the Registration Officer J R Pitman on 20 May 1926. This location would suggest these men fell during the fighting in the assault of 28 April 1917.

The unit of all eight men identified by their Numerals, but Pitman failed the specify the six Unknown Canadian Soldiers as men of the 25th Battalion. Only two of the eight graves in Plot VII, Row Q, Graves 1-8 properly identified by their unit.

LIEVIN COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION

Pvt Hubert Keller Bentley’s 901057 remains found at T.20.C.7.6, just east of the rail line at Vimy, under a GRU cross with 15 other soldiers, and brought into LIEVIN COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION in November of 1923.

Pvt Bentley’s Registration Officer not J R Pitman. Pvt Hubert Keller Bentley buried just after the scandal at ORCHARD DUMP CEMETERY, while the two buried at CABARET-ROUGE BRITISH CEMETERY several years later. Time now to go back and look at the remainder of the men from the 25th Bn buried at ORCHARD DUMP CEMETERY.

ORCHARD DUMP CEMETERY, ARLEUX-EN-GOHELLE

Over 3,000 Great War casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, more than four-fifths unidentified, and special memorials erected to ten soldiers from the United Kingdom and four from Canada known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 38 Canadian soldiers and six from the United Kingdom, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves destroyed by shell fire – some the soldiers in question from the 25th Battalion.

Only five men of the 25th Battalion who fell 28 April 1917 buried beneath a CWGC headstone with full particulars at Orchard Dump. How did they manage to come into identified graves at Orchard Dump?

How not as informative as from where and when did these soldiers come into ORCHARD DUMP CEMETERY with regard to those ‘lost’ at WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY? Therefore, a chronological examination of the five men of the 25th Bn buried with full particulars in order.

Private Walter Ross & the UCS 25th Bn

On 20 November 1919, a lone grave found at 36c.T.23.d.8.2 with remains containing a letter.

The contents led to the identification of Private Walter Ross 902095.

Unknown 25th Bn

Buried beside Private W Ross an Unknown soldier of the 25th Battalion. How was he identified as a 25th Battalion soldier?

Though recovered and reburied beside Pvt Ross on the same day, the UCS 25th Bn came in from a different area.

Shimmy-shallying

Oddly, the Orchard Dump Cemetery COG-BR Binder.pdf file contains the Burial Return for III.C.21-30, as does the CWGC Casualty Details for Private W Ross does. Inexplicably, III.C.23, recovered from 36c.T.29.c.4.5 (just north of Arleux-en-Gohelle) identified as a “UNKNOWN CANADIAN SOLDIER.25th.Cdn.Bn.” with Nil. means of identification.

Private A M Towers

On 24 November 1919, four days later, the same Lieutenant Commanding the Arleux Department of No. 700 Labour Coy brought in another casualty of the 25th Battalion from around the same location – 36c.T.23.d.8.2. Private Arthur Michael Towers 180325 found with a letter identifying him as a member of the Canadian Infantry.

British Trench Map Coordinate Accuracy

The only way both Pvt Towers and Pvt Ross recovered from the exact same location four days apart would suggest the second body was recovered at a deeper level. More likely, the two bodies recovered relatively close to each other, say only a few feet or so. The answer explained by the accuracy of the British Trench Map Coordinate system. Coordinates like 36c.T.23.d.8.2 indicated precision to the tenth of a 50-yard square (5 yards). A coordinate like 36c.T.23.d.85.23 could pinpoint a spot within a 5-yard square. With single-digit precision, as in the case of Towers and Ross, they were recovered within a 50-yard radius.

Private Neil John MacDonald

On 27 November 1919, further work around the same location found Private Neil John MacDonald 415063 at 36c.T.23.d.8.2 along with one UCS, and one UBS by the Registration Officer of No. 700 Labour Coy. On 27 November 1919, reburied in Plot VII, Row A, between graves 26 and 29.

The winter of 1919/1920 likely shut down the exhumation teams in this area, but work surely continued in March of 1920. Keep in mind, No. 700 Labour Coy has yet to work on WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY.

Private Glendon Earle McCulloch

On 17 March 1920, Private Glendon Earle McCulloch 901046 found at 36c.T.28.a.4.6 along with 7 Canadians of other units by the Registration Officer of No. 700 Labour Coy. This location close to VANCOUVER ROAD (D 50e2 today – the road between La Gueule d’Ours and Willerval, i.,e, WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY). The Burial Return stamped WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY.

In this group of eight men, Pvt McCulloch and two others had a wooden GRU cross, two men of the CMGC had CEF Battalion crosses, while three others identified by their discs, as their were no crosses above their graves. These men all placed in IX.D.43-50.

IX.B.21-30

Also on this day, from CANADIAN WILLERVAL CEMETERY, IX.B.21-30 completed with Private E. R. Sutherland 901861 in Grave 22. Nine of these ten men identified by a GRU cross over their graves. The UCS of the 25th Bn had no cross. Take another look the the Burial Return:

IX.B.31-40

Also coming in on 17 March 1920, IX.B.31-40, with 3 of ten men unidentified. Note this document stamped and signed by R. H. Adams of No. 700 Labour Coy.

SNAFU

Inserted immediately after this Burial Return, a document neither stamped nor signed by R.H. Adams, and the usual typeset of the Lt. Cmdg. , is not the same, and WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY typed in the opposite direction.

The authenticity of this document cannot be verified. And where is the similarly altered document for IX.B.21-30, Pvt Sutherland’s Burial Return?

IX.B.41-50

The next three Burial Returns come on different letterhead and apparently from a different Burial Officer. The first two of these Burial Returns concern WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY. Date Unknown – Signed (Only Pvt King 748726 of CMGC identified) Pg 66/175.

FUBAR

Unlike the previous Burial Officer, he failed to mention the names he found on the crosses. These men condemned to be commemorated on VIMY MEMORIAL. Had the Burial Officer recorded the names, these men would have been added to Special Memorial 17, as they could not be individually identified. Or, remain here in IX.B. and have inscriptions: BURIED NEAR THIS SPOT.

IX.D.41-50

Two rows behind IX.B.41-50 the same Burial Officer handwrote WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY for Graves 43-50. A total of 38 graves exhumed from WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY. Note only Pte McCulloch 901946 from the 25th Battalion, identified by a GRU cross. Significantly, all of these men recovered from WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY and buried in IX.D.43-50 are still there in Row D. They are not commemorated on Special Memorial No. 17.

This the final Burial Return of WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY, for a total of 38 soldiers reclaimed on 17 March 1920, Note the total agrees with that in the year 1957. However, later in the Fall of 1920, Pvt Arsenault 712702 found at 36c.T.23.d.8.2, but the Burial Officer does not note this as the location of WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY.

Private Benjamin Arsenault

Another miracle would be Private Benjamin Arsenault 712702. On 21 November 1920, his remains also located in the area of CANADIAN WILLERVAL CEMETERY at 36c.T.23.d.8.2 and the Registration Officer of No. 700 Labour Coy again found a letter leading to his identity.

While ORCHARD DUMP CEMETERY open to concentration for years to come (there are 20 casualties of the Second World War), no other soldiers of the 25th Battalion came into Orchard Dump. Private Benjamin Arsenault, the last known soldier of the 25th Battalion buried here. Perhaps the cemetery temporarily closed to Great War burials, as the three aforementioned men of the 25th later found, buried at Cabaret-Rouge and Lievin.

Return to the Missing

Perhaps, up to nine of the Missing Men of the 25th Battalion on 28 April 1917 recovered and buried between in IX.B.41-50 at Orchard Dump in 1920. With the one UCS of the 25th buried here, nearly all the Missing could be accounted for at ORCHARD DUMP CEMETERY. A pilgrimage to these men named on VIMY MEMORIAL should include a visit to the Unknowns buried within ORCHARD DUMP CEMETERY.

• James McDougall Armstrong
• George Albert Bates
• Robert Fleming Bell
• Currie Copp
• Alexander Ernest Gulliver
• Frank Kinney
• John A. McNeil
• John Benjamin Adolphus Morash
• Carl Mosher
• George Harris
• John Thomas Steele
• George Manly Stevens
• Sidney Clifford Woodley

Agricultural Issue at Orchard Dump

Certain graves in Plots VII, VIII and IX, identified collectively but not individually, marked by headstones bearing the additional words “Buried near this spot.” To commemorate a soldier properly, it is fundamental to use the correct wording. A soldier ‘believed’ to be buried has a more ambiguous posthumous legacy than one ‘known’ to be buried. 

All the blame cannot be attributed to the work of the Graves Registration Unit teams at Orchard Dump. Another scandal at the cemetery involved the returning farmer who had plowed through an area close to where the Cross of Sacrifice later erected. Though the farmer had not plowed deep enough to disturb the remains, he had ‘accidentally’ disturbed their wooden crosses. Fortunate for the farmer, he had not plowed deeply enough to encounter unexploded ordnance (UXO), which could have taken his life.

The headstones later erected to replace their wooden crosses had to be changed to BURIED NEAR THIS SPOT. Fourteen of these sixteen headstones belong to men of the 16th Canadian Infantry Battalion, also killed-in-action on 28/30th April 1917. Private G A Cunningham of the 4th Battalion, and a Private R Graves served with the Canadian Machine Gun Corps.

The farmer’s field now lies behind a rather tall perimeter wall at Orchard Dump. The cemetery covers an area of 9,402 square metres and enclosed by rubble walls on three sides.

A tablet in the cemetery records the fact that the site given by Mme Wartelle, the widow of a Captain in the French 72nd Infantry Regiment, killed in action on 27 August 1914 at Battle of Cesse (Meuse).

Spring Iron Harvest

Successive generations of farmers would learn to respect the fields for they still contain the remains of The Missing, and plenty of UXO during the annual Spring Iron Harvest. Of over 300,000,000 artillery shells fired on the Western Front, over 20% buried as duds – the UXO.

The rate of recovery of these shells from the fields not expected to decline for another three generations! Danger still exists, a farmer in Belgium severely burned by a gas shell in July 2025. Holding the shell against his stomach to transport to it’s customary place for a demolition team, the effects of the leaking gas did not bother him for three days.

The Soldiers Grave Scandal

Recently posted, the Origins of the Soldiers Grave Scandal.

The post includes correspondence from Mr Edward Hempenstall and Mr T H Chapman raising the issue of the closing of the Burial Recovery Program in the Fall of 1921.

Questions

• Was this post too complicated?
• Was it unfair?
• Were you surprised?

Contact CEFRG