Abstract:
The First World War took place between 1914 and 1918, with conflict occurring
in Europe and across the globe. By the end of the War, the bodies of the British
and Commonwealth dead were scattered across France and Belgium. It was
decided to move single graves or small cemeteries into bigger cemeteries that
were being built by the Imperial War Graves Commission. This process was
called “concentration”, and involved searching the battlefields for graves, then
excavating and attempting to identify the bodies present, prior to their reburial in
a concentration cemetery. This thesis focuses on the concentration process and
specifically examines a sample of graves from Hooge Crater Cemetery, Belgium.
The main research aim is to understand the range of errors that occurred during
concentration and identification, and how prolific they were. A historical and literature review was completed, followed by the analysis of data
from 109 graves from Hooge Crater Cemetery that were re-exhumed in 1920.
This proved that within the sample, a high number of errors occurred in the
original concentration work. Following this, 163 burial returns containing the
details of 1013 graves from Hooge Crater Cemetery were selected for detailed
analysis. The information from these burial returns was gathered and reviewed,
and where possible was plotted onto First World War trench maps. This data
provides new insights into where and when bodies were concentrated, the type
of methods used for identification and how these methods changed over time. The research presented here demonstrates that identification rates varied, and
were influenced by several factors including burial location, quantity of body
present, time of concentration and primary identification method used.
Overall, this thesis expands our knowledge of First World War grave
concentration, including how the battlefields were searched and how bodes were
identified.
