Weekly Meeting - War Grave Detectives (Nicola Nash)

War Grave Detectives (Nicola Nash)

Nicola Nash is employed by the Ministry of Defence and works in the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) at Imjin Barracks.  She is an archaeology graduate with an interest in military history inspired by her grandfather’s naval career.  She felt that joining the JCCC has given her the opportunity to link these two interests.  Nicola took up her post five years ago and is part of an all-female team of six who, as a part of their duties, try to identify bodies found in war graves that have disturbed, usually as a result of new building work, and then arrange for their reburial. 

Nicola told us that JCCC deals with all deaths and compassionate cases within the armed forces.  One of their responsibilities is to arrange the repatriation of soldiers to the UK who die or are taken ill whilst abroad, together with their relatives. 

Their duties can extend beyond the armed services; for example they arranged the return of the victims of the Tunisian bombing, as they are the only department with the expertise to deal with mass casualties 

Nicola then turned to the gruesome realities of battlefield clearance and the identification of remains.  After the First World War there were ¾ million men without a known grave.  How is that possible?  Unfortunately, the nature of World War I was that, once an action had taken place and the casualties had been buried, the battle front moved backwards and forwards over that position making recovery difficult.  Grave markers were destroyed and the reclamation of remains could not start until 1919 – i.e. a minimum of six months to a maximum of four years after death. 

Before World War I soldiers were not buried individually but normally in unmarked mass graves.  No detailed records were kept - only the country of death was recorded.  It is, therefore, most unlikely that pre-1914 bodies can ever be identified.  

All of this changed in the First World War as it was felt that the non-burial of soldiers’ comrades would have had a detrimental effect on morale.  Once buried, a record of death was kept and this is was infinitely better for the relatives than their loved ones just being listed as missing.  Battlefield clearance was normally done by the soldiers themselves after the war; which in itself caused trauma to those doing the work.  There is record from one soldier commenting that the first two weeks of this job was extremely distressing but you did become hardened to it.  The number of bodies and their location were recorded on what are called body density maps. 

Very often there will be no personal items on the bodies as these would have been removed to pass onto relatives.  Even ID tags are never found as they were bio-degradable.  Occasionally JCCC come across burials where the soldiers still have their uniforms on, which makes life easier as they can then find the insignia of their regiments.  However, this is rare as in France most bodies are found on construction sites where the burial has been disturbed.  Therefore Nicola and her colleagues cannot know which items belong to which bodies.  French building sites have to be monitored in case unexploded ordinance is present, so bodies are more likely to be intact and can be easily removed.  Conversely, Belgian building sites are not obliged to be monitored so graves are more greatly disturbed.   

Nicola explained that JCCC personnel are not police officers but experts in painstaking research.  They use their skills to try and identify the remains of a fallen soldier and currently deal with 40 to 60 referrals a year.  The process starts when a soldiers body is discovered, which could be anywhere in the world from northern Europe to Korea. 

Nicola then took us through a typical case study – in 2018 during the building of a road a site containing, potentially, nine bodies was found near Polygon Wood and close to the village of Passchendaele. 

These were identified as Northumberland Fusiliers from their cap badges and tunic buttons.  A flare gun was found together with two pairs of officer’s boots.  Fortunately artefacts are preserved better in Belgium than France due to soil conditions  

This is the starting point.  The detectives had artefacts which confirm the regiment and they had the position of the burial site.  And, as it is in the area of the Passchendaele Campaign, they had a date which gave a time window in which to search the war diaries.  One body had a ring with initials and an ID bracelet.  They were, therefore, able to identify this officer directly and that he was killed at the Battle of Polygon Wood on 15 October 1917.  War diaries give a day-to-day detailed record of what the Regiment was doing at any given time, wherever they were in the field.  On this day it shows two officers and a number of other ranks were killed.  Two officers were mentioned, one of whom they had already identified by the ID bracelet and ring.  Days previously the war diary records their moving into position, with a reference to a trench map location.  This location corresponds to the map reference where the bodies were found.  From records now available on line, a record of all soldiers who died on that day could be compiled.  On this particular date ten names are listed.  They only had nine remains so it is surmised that the 10th individual was closest to the explosion which killed them all, probably a mortar shell.  Two were officers and, as they are certain of the identity of one, the second body is more than likely that of the second officer.  A swagger stick was also found at the site which indicates an NCO.  Of the names listed one was an NCO, so he can now be identified.  The remaining bodies were examined by an anthropologist to give height, age and any other information which could be used to compare with the army medical records to find a match.  Many records of other ranks from World War I were destroyed during the blitz, but officers’ records are still intact.   

This case study is still ongoing, the next stage is DNA testing.  All the unidentified soldiers will have samples of DNA taken.  When a positive report is received (identifiable DNA) then, if service records are available, the ages and heights of those soldiers listed as missing can be compared to further reduce the possible matches.  It is then that the process of tracing the families to obtain confirmatory DNA is started.  This has its own difficulties.  The relatives of First World War soldiers will probably be two or three generations apart, whereas Second World War onwards may be the same generation. 

Once all has fallen into place, bodies found and identified, relatives found and informed of the findings, the Soldier is given a full military burial.  It is also important for current soldiers to see that even their comrades who died a century ago ‘will never be forgotten’. 

This was a very interesting talk and we should all be grateful to people like Nicola and her colleagues for trying to ensure that those who made the ultimate sacrifice are identified and finally laid to rest. 

Richard Allison