GovWire

Our future services, current appeals and past cases

The following services are planned for March/April 2023:

22 March 2023

10am at Perth Cemetery (China Wall) in Belgium: A rededication service for Serjeant William Clay Cubberley of 2nd Battalion The Worcestershire Regiment.

23 March 2023

10am at Ecoust Military Cemetery, France: A rededication service for Lieutenant Harold Rymer Smith of 2/6th Battalion The North Staffordshire Regiment.

2.30pm at Crucifix Corner Cemetery, Villers-Bretonneux, France: A rededication service for Second Lieutenant Wilfred John Massey-Lynch of 3rd Dragoon Guards.

18 April 2023

10am at Assevillers New British Cemetery, France: A rededication service for Second Lieutenant Alick Aylmore of 15th London Regiment (Prince of Wales Own) Civil Service Rifles.

11.45am at London Cemetery and Extension, Longueval, France: A rededication service for Private Douglas Dickson of the Devonshire Regiment.

3.30pm at Loos British Cemetery, France: A rededication service for Lieutenant Cecil Shelley of the Scots Guards .

19 April 2023

10.15am at Busigny Communal Cemetery, France: A rededication service for Private James McCaffrey of the Tank Corps.

12.00pm at Highland Cemetery, Le Cateau, France: A rededication service for Corporal Thomas Stannage of 10th (Prince of Wales Own Royal) Hussars.

Appeals for family

Can you help us find surviving family of 305343 Pte James McCafferty, who was killed in action on 11 October 1918 whilst serving with 5th Battalion, Tank Corps?

Pte McCafferty had previously served with the 5th Royal Dublin Fusiliers (service number 30370).

He was born in about 1889 in Tullish Down, Ireland, to Hugh and Annie McCafferty. He married Elizabeth Downie in Glasgow on 14 July 1911.

Any help would be much appreciated; please email us at DBS-MODWarDetectives@mod.gov.uk.

Forthcoming funeral or rededication services with full military honours.

Services have finished for 2022 and are due to recommence in March 2023.

Further details to follow.

Our Past Cases

Details of some of the MOD War Detectives past cases can be found below:

• Graves of two soldiers killed in northern France rededicated

• Sheffield soldier of the Great War laid to rest 105 years after his death

• Graves of six Great War soldiers rededicated

• British airman laid to rest 78 years after fatal flight

• WW2 airman buried in the Netherlands

• WW2 burial in the Netherlands

• Unknown Grenadier Guard finally laid to rest

• Graves of two Royal Naval Division officers rededicated in France

• Seven soldiers of the Great War finally laid to rest

• WW1 Royal Air Force officers grave rededicated.

• Two Great War RAF officers graves rededicated.

• Graves of two Great War casualties finally rededicated.

• Unknown WW1 soldier identified as relative of poet Wordsworth.

• WW2 officers grave rededicated in France.

• Rededication services held in Belgium for Capt Hugh Travers, DSO, and Sjt Frederick Cardy.

• Rededication services in France for Lieutenant (Lt) Frederic Hornby Lever Rushton MC and Private (Pte) John Martin Roberts.

• Burial of Pte William Johnston and an unknown East Yorkshire Regiment soldier

• Blessing service in Italy for Flying Officer Arnold Hallas

• Unknown WW2 British Soldier buried in Italy.

• Graves of Rifleman (Rfn) Albert George Sleet, Lieutenant (Lt) Wilfrid Ashton Piercy and Serjeant (Sjt) James Gration DCM rededicated in France.
• Graves of 2Lt Sam Hughes and CSM David Jones DCM rededicated in northern France
• Final resting place of Yorkshire Regiment soldier identified more than a century after his death
• Nine soldiers of the Great War buried a century after their deaths
• WW1 soldier identified by his medal ribbons laid to rest in the presence of his family
• Two unknown soldiers of the Great War finally buried
• Royal Flying Corps Observers grave finally identifed
• British soldiers killed during WW2 are honoured as they are laid to rest
• Services held for 2 Welsh brothers in arms killed during the Great War
• Grave of Royal Welsh Fusilier identified a century after his death in the Great War
• Family of World War 1 soldiers attend their relatives funeral a century after they gave their lives.

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