What happened to a soldier who died?

What happened to a soldier who died?

Almost a million British soldiers died in the Great War. Some died alone, killed by a chance shell, grenade or bullet; many died together as they attacked or defended against attack. Thousands of men died of wounds they had suffered, at the medical facilities along the casualty evacuation chain. Many died of illnesses or accidents. This is all well-known and well documented: but what actually happened to them after they died?

From the photographic archive of the Imperial War Museum, with permission: The bodies of men killed in fighting near Guillemont Farm lie with their grave markers awaiting burial, 3 October 1918. IWM negative E(AUS)4945. Note the stacked stretchers

Men who were killed in the fighting area

The varying nature of men’s deaths in the front line and the specific conditions at the time of their death meant that their ultimate fates differed widely. For example:

– some men would have been identifiable and probably buried close to the front line. This would have included, for example, men killed by a sniper or shell explosion whilst holding a trench or on a road close behind the lines; men dug out of a collapsed mine, trench, sap or dug-out; and men dying of wounds having begun their evacuation, but whilst still in their Battalion or Brigade area. These men would be identified by comrades, NCOs or officers.

– some men would have been less easily identifiable, but probably buried in cemeteries or burial plots still quite close to the firing line. This might typically have included those men who had attacked and been killed or died of their wounds, but whose bodies could not be brought in because the place they were lying was under fire. Eventually when the fighting moved away, their bodies would be buried if possible. In this category too would be men who died in a successful advance, whose bodies would be cleared by units other than their own. Identification would be through pay books, tags, and other physical means by men who did not know the individuals.

– some men would be unidentifiable, if the damage to them was such that they ceased to exist as a body or where any form of identification had been lost. Fragments of men, once found, would be buried if possible.

– many men were simply not found, although post-war battlefield clearance (see below) reduced the total of missing.

Many thousands of small burial plots were created on or very close behind the battlefields. They were often damaged by shellfire, and in 1918 many were over-run first by the advancing enemy and later by the Allies pushing eastwards again. Plots were destroyed as the ground was shelled, and the locations of many graves that had been registered and known about were made uncertain.

See our article on “reading” a cemetery, for the type and layout of the cemetery and the wording on a man’s gravestone reveals much about his death and burial.

Men who died on the casualty evacuation chain

See our article on how casualties were evacuated and treated

Cemeteries were created at most of the places where the Casualty Clearing Stations and the less mobile Base Hospitals were located. These cemeteries were rather more orderly in terms of layout, tended to be rather larger due to the concentration of death, and some had the benefit of attention to the grass and flowers around the graves. In most cases, the man was identified and usually his burial was attended by a Chaplain. Some of the these cemeteries suffered from shellfire or other damage, particularly as those laid out in 1914-1917 were overrun by the enemy and then the counter-attacking Allies in 1918.