The Scottish War Graves Project

spoons

If you are trying to reconcile the number of gravestones you find, compared with the number you expect, you may find the following helpful.

Some official CWGC graves are marked by private stones. Other private stones can be identical in inscription but do not mark CWGC graves.

Some graves contain more than one burial (in Stranraer glebe there is one gravestone marking 3 unknown soldiers).

I have seen a gravestone identical in appearance to a CWGC gravestone but it was a private one and therefore not recorded on CWGC. I cannot remember exactly where, down in England somewhere I think.

In CWGC the description of the cemetery counts the number of 'identified casualties' but note this is NOT the number of war graves. Any graves of unknown soldiers and airmen etc are not included in this figure. For example see Stranraer Glebe cemetery which has 9 commonwealth burials from the great war, plus 43 from WW2 and 3 Polish burials. Total 55 but 5 of these are unknown and therefore 50 is the figure given for identified casualties.

Also it is quite possible that the cemetery will contain graves of civilian war dead that do not appear on the CWGC record for that cemetery at all. For example Troqueer graveyard extension has a grave for TE Perks who is not listed for the cemetery, in fact he can be found under Kirkcubright County civilian war dead but with no indication of where his grave actually lies.

Finally, don't forget that MOD gravestones (for deaths outside of the two world wars) are not listed on CWGC.

\Paul

DelBoy · Joined: 02 Feb 2008 Posts: 1188 Location: Arbroath

I'm glad you explained that about MOD gravestones because I couldn't find some on CWGC, but they were outwith the wars.

What's the story with family headstones that remember a soldier who is buried in a foreign country, but is now a burial really? Are they being recorded?

David McNay · Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:50 am Post subject:

We're recording every grave with a military connection.

So if it mentions someone buried abroad, we'll list it.

We'll also list:

Military deaths in peacetime.
Soldiers died before 1914, whether serving at the time or not.
Soldiers died after 1945.

I also record any graves that mention a rank or decoration. I've seen a couple of graves where the family had the fact he'd been awarded a Military Medal inscribed. We record them.

apanderson · Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 6903 Location: Stirlingshire

Derek,

The way we try to lay out the pages is as follows . . . .

1.
CWGC Burials A - Z (WW1 & WW2)
(whether CWGC or family stones - e.g. the person is buried there)

2.
Non CWGC Burials A - Z (WW1 & WW2
(Family stones - e.g. the person is not buried there but is mentioned in the inscription and will be listed on CWGC)

3.
Other . . . . This can be MoD stones for deaths between and post WW1 & WW2 plus miscellaneous military related stones.

If you have a look at (for example) the Stirlingshire thread 'Mar and Valley Cemeteries' and go to the last few pages, you'll see an example of what David was talking about.
http://scottishwargraves.phpbbweb.com/viewtopic.php?t=235

A lot of these men died while at Stirling Castle when it was a depot for various regiments - not actually involved in any conflict but they were 'military deaths'. Some of them were real old-timers too - probably died in their beds of old age!

Another interesting thread is: http://scottishwargraves.phpbbweb.com/viewtopic.php?t=211&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

This shows some of the 'older' stones with references to men having a military connection.

You've probably realised that both of the above threads are 'mine', but rather than have you trawl through loads, I thought these two would help illustrate everything.

Anne

P.S. Welcome to the Project - I look forward to seeing your input.

DelBoy · Joined: 02 Feb 2008 Posts: 1188 Location: Arbroath

EDIT: (oops double post)

DelBoy · Joined: 02 Feb 2008 Posts: 1188 Location: Arbroath

Thanks for the info and how to Paul and Anne. I should hopefully have my first pics up soon.

Is there a preferred image size for posting on the forum?

Derek.

spoons · Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:41 pm Post subject:

We generally post in 800X600, it seems good enough for most of the detail and it is the largest filesize allowed by photobucket (where most of us keep our pics). It's not a hard and fast rule, but anything smaller and you lose resolution, anything larger and it slows down loading for the end-user.

\Paul