True Identity of a fallen soldier in the Great War Part - 10

Post by **cnosni** » Sun 27 Jul, 2014 2:56 pm

The Boss looked at the notice and agreed with me and then made a commen,t which didnt sink in at first, when she said "and its great to have a picture of him now".Then i realised what she meant. There were two photo's of two soldiers at the bottom of the notice and in my excitement in originally reading the notice i didnt pay them much heed.

Post by **cnosni** » Sun 27 Jul, 2014 2:58 pm

Leodian wrote: Is that that the surname is Hoolahan in the text but Houlahan with the photo? You got it Leo

Post by **cnosni** » Sun 27 Jul, 2014 3:01 pm

After the shock of now being able to see what this man,for whom i had been campaigning for so long, looked like i was then struck by how much he looked like his nephew/my father.Same hair colour, parting and facial features. It was quite striking and emotional as my dad had died in 2008.It also demonstrated the pitfalls of the surname Hoolahan as the caption shows yet another incorrect spelling/inerpretation of the surname.But there was no mistaking that this was the absolute proof, when combined with all the other evidence,that Private 3/10645 Robert Hoonan was actually my great uncle Robert Hoolan (from Hoolahan)

kango · Post by **kango** » Sun 27 Jul, 2014 4:55 pm

Excellent dogged research Chris and a very happy conclusion for you and your family.

Post by **cnosni** » Sun 27 Jul, 2014 7:19 pm

kango wrote: Excellent dogged research Chris and a very happy conclusion for you and your family. Well it was certainly a happy conclusion for ourselves, however, it was the official recognition that was needed that would result in the amendment of the official records to reflect teh real name of the soldier that was the ultimate goal.With that in mind i began to put together another submission three years after the last one.I rang the CWGC and spoke to Nic Andrews, the idea being to see whether or not he still worked there.Nic did indeed still work there and he recalled the case. Without giving too much away i told him i was sending some new evidence that i believed was conclusive.I started the new submission with an overview of the evidence previously submitted and then presented the confirmation from the Leeds Registry Office with regards to the search they had done on my behalf, the Soldiers Will dated 20th June 1916 and finally the newspaper notice.This was sent at the end of January 2014 and i was ready for a long wait to hear from the Commission.In the meantime i had been planning another trip to France and Belgium with some workfriends with two days of that visit being devoted to the Somme area.For one of those Somme days we were going to use a local living ex army Sergeant Major as a tour guide.Dave Platt owns and operates Beaumont Hamel View tours based in Auchonvillers and when i was in contact with him arranging the tour i had told him about Robert Hoolan and the the case surrounding him.Dave suggested that we visit teh grave of Private 3/10645 on the day that we were being guided around by him.I thought about it and decided not to do so as the next time i wanted to visit the grave was when the CWGC had made a decision one way or the other and as the tour was on the 1st of May i did not think that they would have had enough time to arrive at a decision going by the time it had taken them to reply in the past.

Post by **cnosni** » Sun 27 Jul, 2014 7:26 pm

The trip to France and Belgium began in the last week in April, we visited Mons, then on to the Maginot Line Fort at Veckring, close to the Luxembourg border, followed by a day at Verdun (not enough) and then on Tuesday 30th April we drove around the PAs de Calais area visiting the Todt Battery near Audinghen, north of Boulogne.It was as we were having a good look around some old German haevy gun emplacements that i received a phone call from "The Boss".She told me that there was a letter for me and the rear said that it was from the CWGC, "Should i open it?""Go on then,hurry up" i replied

Post by **cnosni** » Sun 27 Jul, 2014 7:27 pm

Post by **cnosni** » Sun 27 Jul, 2014 7:59 pm

So there you are, the young man killed in 1916 is now finally, and officially, recognised with his correct name, though you may note that the letter from the CWGC shows the wrong age.The age should be 20 years old and this has been addressed.I wrote back to the Commission on my return and thanked them, and asked them to let me know when the new headstone had been put in place.Then at the end of June, i received an email from the CWGC telling me that ITN news had been in touch with them, wanting to look at and hilight the Commissions work, with a view to filming a replacement headstone being made and put in place.This is to be part of ITN's marking of the outbreak of the First World upon which they will run an item each night next week.As the headstone for my (now recognised as) great uncle was due to be replaced at some stage with a correctly inscribed headstone then the CWGC wondered if i would be interested with helping ITN with the story behind what happened.Well it went a bit further than that and two weeks ago i went out to France to see the new headstone not only being made at the CWGC facility in Arras but to also take part in putting it in place in the cemetery.The footage that ITN filmed will be shown Friday 1st August on the News at Ten, nothing big, just a couple of minutes.Many thanks to all those who have shown an interest in this story and i hope you can tune in to the Ten o'clock News on Friday to see the conclusion of the saga.Cheers

uncle mick · Post by **uncle mick** » Sun 27 Jul, 2014 9:10 pm

Brilliant research

PC - Dublin · Post by **PC - Dublin** » Sun 27 Jul, 2014 9:15 pm

Absolutely fascinating.PC