Advice from experts please

[Steelcity]

Firsly what a fascinating site to sumble across whilst researching my great uncle Fred Slater who was killed in the great war. Also after being born and bred in Sheffield and now moved away its great to see old pics/historical facts etc.

Anyway I have a few questions for those that may know these things:

If the notification of death certificate reads 'Died' do we assume he may have died in a number of possibilities i.e died of wounds later or infection or flu etc or can it still mean he was 'killed in action' ?

Also he does not have a grave but has an inscription on a memorial at Arras cemetary. Presumably therefore there was no body to bury so how did they identify people. Did they have dog tag equivalents in those days?

Sorry if these are basic questions and thanks to any replys.

[Guest Trefcon]

Hi,

there would be no exact cause of death if he died abroad, be that in action, of wounds, etc, you only get exact cause of death if he had died in England after being brought back to Blighty. He is on a memorial because his body has 'disappeared', he could well have been buried in a marked grave at a maked cemetery, but heavy shelling in later actions destroyed these cemeteries and bodies were 'lost'. He could also though be in a marked grave of one of the 'unknown soldier' graves, his remains being found later. Dog tags were worn, off the top of my head they were red and green discs.

This from Sheffield Daily Independent, 15th July 1916.

Fred's name appears on the Walkley St. Mary, Roll of Honour, there is also an F. Slater on the Sheffield Post Office Roll of Honour at Castle House, Sheffield.

Walkley Roll of Honour.

Castle House Roll of Honour.

Apologies for the poor image of Fred, if i can get a better one at a later date i will.

regards

Dean.

[Steelcity]

Wow. Thank you soooo much. None of the relatives have any photo so poor quality or not thats great and seeing the memorials is amazing. I have a copy of a letter he sent home two months before he died which is very sad as he talks of coming home and he had a baby who he never saw.

The paper in the pic states him as missing, his date of death is 22/05/16

Thanks again.

[Guest Trefcon]

I should have checked SDGW first, it has him listed as 'Killed in action'.

Here with his MIC, as you can see he landed in France on Thursday the 11th of November 1915, he was entitled to the 1915 Star, Victory, and British War medal. In the remarks part, it has presumed dead 22/5/16', the Post Office Rifles were at Vimy Ridge when the Germans attacked on the 21/5/16, so he must have died in this action.

By the way, do you have a Thomas Henry Slater related to Fred ? I notice there is a Pitsmoor connection with your Fred and Thomas Henry Slater, from Danville Street, Pitsmoor. Just wondering.

Dean.

[Steelcity]

I should have checked SDGW first, it has him listed as 'Killed in action'.

Here with his MIC, as you can see he landed in France on Thursday the 11th of November 1915, he was entitled to the 1915 Star, Victory, and British War medal. In the remarks part, it has presumed dead 22/5/16', the Post Office Rifles were at Vimy Ridge when the Germans attacked on the 21/5/16, so he must have died in this action.

By the way, do you have a Thomas Henry Slater related to Fred ? I notice there is a Pitsmoor connection with your Fred and Thomas Henry Slater, from Danville Street, Pitsmoor. Just wondering.

Dean.

Thanks for that, I have tried to upload the copy of the letter. Hope you can read it. I can send you a transcript. I will look at will look up the connection with Thomas Henry and see if wew have any record of this. Fascinating stuff!

[Steelcity]

Here is the first part

[Steelcity]

Here is the transcript I Have done:

Fred_letter_transcript.doc

[Guest Trefcon]

Thanks for posting the letter.

Dean.

[RichardB]

Great work Dean.