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Commemorated but.........

 
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DerekR
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Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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Location: Hawick, Scotland

PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 7:51 pm    Post subject: Commemorated but......... Reply with quote

Thomas Dryden Thompson died on the troopship "Ivernia" when it was sunk by a U-boat on 1st January, 1917.
His name is commemorated on the Mikra Memorial to the Missing:
http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=1648125

However, in 1917 his family received a letter from the French Embassy in Athens recording the recovery of Thomas' body:

“the body of the deceased was discovered on the shore of Aghios Nicolaos, near the village of Karava in the island of Cerigo and the remans were buried with religious rights and honours in the cemetery of St.Nicholaos Karava.
The grave is enclosed by a handsome wooden railing and a cross has been erected:
“Sergeant Thompson of the British Army, a victim of duty to his great country, 1917”.



The family headstone in the Wellogate Cemetery in Hawick also notes his final resting place in Cerigo AND carries the same wording as that received from the French Embassy :
"a victim of duty to his great country"




So my question is why if his burial place was marked does his name only exist on a memorial to the missing?

The Greek authorities/French Embassy must have informed the British authorities of the discovery, if, for no other reason than for them to find the details of the next of kin.
Surely his grave couldn't have been lost if it had been marked with a cross in a community cemetery?
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kinnethmont



Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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Location: Aberdeenshire

PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 8:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Derek

I will see if this can be checked in any way. As you know CWGC only record details given to them. Searching for burials / evidence is outside their remit.
There might well have been problems in maintaining the grave which would account for the name on the Mikra Memorial.


Do you have a copy of the letter mentioned?
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Jim

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kinnethmont



Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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Location: Aberdeenshire

PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2011 12:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Derek

An unmaintanable grave ( assuming the letter detail is accurate) seems to be the likely reason.

The original register for the Mikra Memorial has him listed with the NOK details shown. This confirms he had no known or maintainable grave then.

Clearly the family provided information to IWGC and one would have to assume they passed any info they had to them of a burial place, if IWGC were not aware of it already, when it was proposed to commemorate him at Mikra.
It could be that he was buried in the Greek equivelant of our " common " ground or in a private grave.
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DerekR
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Location: Hawick, Scotland

PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2011 9:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jim,
Thank you.

The letter transcript comes from a local newspaper but I believe it to be genuine as the family headstone in Hawick bears the same wording.

An unmaintainable grave would prove the likely theory here as the family would have been notified of his name being listed on the Mikra Memorial and would likely have disputed this fact if they had known that his grave existed only a couple of years earlier.
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kinnethmont



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Location: Aberdeenshire

PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Derek

The original Mikra Memorial register dates from 1930 so the details were gathered before that. The NOK have added to the basic register detail supplied by the military proving they were in contact with IWGC during the verification process.
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Jim

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In Flanders fields.

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