Genealogy Chat

On one of the pages of my Great Uncle Vivian Henry Walsh's War Record says in a has hand written on the bottom of the page
Buried In the Vicinity of Y***court Wood could be Ynaricourt but can't really be sure does anyone please know of this place in France please and what the actual name is of this place, this happened on the 17th of July 1917 Kind Regards Lara Linga Longa
Lara LInga Longa

if you google CWGC and you will find a site where details all the soldiers that died WW1 and WW2 are kept. If you enter his name you will find his details, his parents name and address and you can print off a certificate for him. Good luck Irene

I think the actual place might be Warlencourt. There was fierce fighting around the Butte de Warlencourt during much of WW1, and there is now a CWGC cemetery at Warlencourt - my father's brother is buried there.

This article on Wikipedia might be of interest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butte_de_Warlencourt

I had a look at his service records, and I think the burial place reads "Maricourt Wood". If you Google it, there are quite a few references to the WW1 cemetery there.

Thanks so much to you all , I will go and check all of these places and let you know where he is, just would like to go and see his place of rest maybe in 2010 and thank him for his sacrifice along with another great uncle James Robert O'Day who is buried in Belgium of course neither of their mothers ever had the opportunity to go so will do it for them both my maternal and paternal Great Grandmother boys .Once again thanks you are all unreal and very kind Warm Regards Laraine

Hi Lara,

The Australian War Graves people will send you a photo of the grave. I had one of my grandfather's brother sent to me - took ages, but a lovely colour photo of his grave in France. I had done a search on the War Memorial site, so had the grave site number etc. I was thrilled to bits to receive it. Worth a go!

Alison

You might like to check:
http://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_11190.asp
You can search his embarcation (12th reinf) and his roll of honour circular
http://www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/AWM131/051/051214.pdf
(Killed at Bullecourt, previously wounded at Poziers)

There are chapters on both in:
http://www.awm.gov.au/histories/first_world_war/


Each unit, like the 3rd Bn, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, ANZAC I kept War Diaries where they logged daily events.
(Walsh belonged to all of these, working up the chain of command to bigger formations E.g., 1st Bde consisted of 1st thru 4th Bns + Bde HQ (and maybe some non-battalion troops),
http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/war_diaries/first_world_war/
In particular
http://www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/AWM4/23/AWM4-23-20-27.pdf
[P 16 of WD has map showing Vraucourt Wood behind the 3rd Bn trenches on 4/5/1917]

At the CWGC site, if you click on the VILLERS-BRETONNEUX MEMORIAL link, you can read abt the memorial. Since your guy isn't given a plot # here, it seems possible that when they went to collect his body from the tempoaray grave at Y*court Wood, they found the grave destroyed, probably by subsequent shellfire. CWGC might know more details - note I transcribe your Y* Wood as V* Wood.

Following Richard in Perth's lead, I found his AIF records online, and free. What a deal, eh. (If he'd been in the CEF, that would only apply to his Attestation Papers - it would cost 10 GBP to copy (less 25% off for OAPs), plus postage to get paper copies of that record.)
Anyways, on image 19 of 45, we read "Buried in the vacinity of * Wood (5[Y|7][G|6])" "W.Br (Sh 10)"

I'm still inclined to Vraucourt - if the guy writes his V as just a bigger version of his v in vacinity - I don't think it's ??ai* - I don't think that's a dot over the "i" - there's a similar dot over the u of court. Mostly, I'm influenced by the fact I know it's the name of some nearby woods, though.

No - it's definitely MARICOURT Wood - it's written with an old-fashioned M which looks like a Y or a V at first glance. just Google :"Maricourt wood" (including the quotes) - there's several sites that mention it, all relating to WW1.

The fact that it states "in the vicinity of..." implies that the actual grave site is not known - therefore, the memorial at Villers-Bretonneux is probably the closest you'll get to him. At least that will have his name inscribed.

Edit: This site confirms, "no known grave": http://www.aif.adfa.edu.au:8080/showPerson?pid=312613

... and this site shows where his name is inscribed at the memorial: http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/roll_of_honour/person.asp?p=514101

Hello Alan C ,Jonesy, Irene, Richard, Allison and MGNV. thank you all Richard you are right afer looking again what they said on page 19 and looking through a magnifying glass I could see what you could and that it was Maricourt Wood at the moment wrote last night to War Memorial Research Centre to ask had he been reinterred from this place and they said they had searched where they were told by the Red Cross that they were buried but the search was not successful and they sent a trench map of the area to me and said he is mentioned on the wall but not known where he is which is pretty sad but I will go to Maricourt and be as close to him as possible to pay my respects when I go over.Thanks again for all you help you are wonderful,P.S.They also told me about the 3rd Battalion War Diary's and sadly the Red Cross did not have a record of having buried Vivian Henry Walsh Bless his Soul. Regards Lara Linga Longa

Of the 1.1M British & Commonwealth military WW1 dead, 52.7% have known graves, 16.9% are unidentified burials, and for the remaining 30.4%, no body was found.

Source http://www.cwgc.org/admin/files/Finances,%20Statistics%20and%20Service.pdf [page 10]