Documentation:Notes and definitions for soldier remembrance pages

Notes

• The information in our Rolls of Honour have been compiled using two primary sources: HMSO's Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19, Volume 39, The Border Regiment and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database. These have been used for consistency to ensure that any transcriptions are as accurate as possible, with the exception of discrepancies between the two sources and typos that occur from time to time. Additional sources, where used, have been referenced separately.
• For soldiers that survived the war, their remembrance pages are slightly different insofar as not containing the memorial scroll and, for obvious reasons, not being listed in the Rolls of Honour. However, it is our overall aim that each individual irrespective of whether he died in the war or not will eventually have his own remembrance page and will always be Remembered with Honour.
• We were given permission to use information such as company, enlistment dates, former employments, known addresses, and selected media files of headstones and Lonsdale men from newspaper articles from a well-researched website that included "The Lonsdale War Grave Project". This website was particularly useful to fill in some gaps with information not available in the aforementioned sources. Sadly, it no longer exists, however, we continue to be given permission to use an offline copy of this resource (see Contributors – Spike). Included is Lonsdales by address and occupation, which has been included in table format from an original excel file.

Table notes

The first column of the roll is titled "Image". This is the primary image we have on a soldier's remembrance page. The primary image is the main image located at the top left of the page, with the soldier's details listed in table format to the right. Not to be confused with the "images" section below the biography section. This column identifies whether a soldier has a "headstone", "solider", or "poppy" as the primary image.

Below are just a few examples.

Headstone

A photograph of a soldier's Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone. Any photograph of headstones are welcome, preferably taken straight in front from the same height. This ensures the whole headstone is included and the carvings are clear and readable. Photographs taken in different weathers at different times of the year are also welcome.

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Soldier (low res)

An image of the soldier, predominantly of low resolution, usually obtained from copies of newspaper cuttings. Many of these are from short articles and obituaries, and only include the solder's head portrait.

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Soldier (high res)

An image of the soldier, predominantly of higher resolution, usually obtained from family archives and photographs from online auction sites. These may include the soldier in a studio format in full uniform, on his own or with other soldiers of his regiment. He may also be in his civilian clothing, on his own or with other family members.

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Poppy

A stock photograph of a series of fifteen individual and brightly coloured poppies set against a countryside backdrop. Each poppy is meant to symbolise the soldier who fell during the war. These are used when we currently do not hold any images of the soldier. We encourage anyone with images of a soldier (preferably of higher resolution quality, but it's not essential) to upload these and replace the poppy photograph.

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  File:Poppy 02.jpg
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  File:Poppy 04.jpg
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  File:Poppy 10.jpg

Definitions

• Place names: Where soldiers were born, enlisted and died (or buried) have been listed as it was originally published in Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19, Volume 39, The Border Regiment. As a result you may notice some variations in spelling due to a combination of factors including the changes made in the Governmental reform of 1965 and 1974. Some place names changed and some county borders were moved, either enlarging or reducing the historic counties in overall size. It may be possible that a town once belonging to an historic county could now belong to another when the borders of those reformed counties moved.
• Residence: This is where the individual resided before signing up. All place names typically identify their original, historic counties (contemporary to the War) and may not represent present-day county and metropolitan boundaries (see above).
• Attachments: A soldier's attachment to or from other unit(s).
• Transfers: A soldier's transfer to or from other unit(s).
• Former units: A soldier's previous military unit(s) before serving with the final unit in which he served.
• Commands held: Refers to commanding officers and the unit(s) they commanded.
• Theatres: Referring to the large geographical areas, mainly countries, where battles were fought throughout the War: France and Flanders, Italy, Gallipoli, Egypt etc.
• Battles: A listing of any notable battles or wars in which the individual participated during his years of service.
• Tactics:
• Awards or Decorations: These are included if a soldier was awarded, for instance, the Distinguished Conduct Medal. This field is usually left blank although many casualties of the Border Regiment were awarded for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. This terminology was usually used in awards such as DCM citations. A full list of Distinguished Conduct Medal Citations has been transcribed. Other examples of decoration you will occasionally come across are the Victoria Cross, the Military Cross, Military Medal and the Distinguished Service Order.
• Medals: The medals a soldier was awarded for certain involvements during the War. These usually had varying, qualifying factors. The main three are the Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the 1914–15 Star.
• Mentioned in Dispatches: Sometimes shorted to MiD. An individual whose name appeared in an official report, usually written by a superior officer, sent to the high command and detailed the meritorious or gallant action of the individual in the face of the enemy.
• Nationality: Where known the nationality will primarily relate to the country in which the individual was born, even if he moved to another country at an early age. Sometimes source material does not include where the soldier was born. If this is not known, it will either be omitted entirely or "(assumed)" will be included after the flag.
• How died / Cause of death: This can be somewhat ambiguous, for instance d. simply signifies that the soldier died but does not elaborate any further. This could mean he died as a result of sickness such as dysentry, colitis, pneumonia or malaria etc., or possibly an accidental death. Some soldiers have died from accidental discharge when cleaning their weapon. Two of the main ways soldiers died is killed in action and having died of wounds.
• Burial type: This refers to a soldier having a physical grave or an engraving on a memorial.
• Reference number: Every casualty listing will have some form of burial/remembrance reference number. Memorials will usually have panel numbers, such as those for Lonsdale men at the Tyne Cot Memorial (Panel 85 to 86), or the Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Face 6A and 7C). Physical graves tend to have a combination of letters and numbers to signify the plot, row, and grave. For example, VII.B.4. tells us the soldier is buried in plot VII, row B, and grave number 4. The numbering will be different for different cemeteries.
• Newspapers: Additional information about soldiers could be ascertained from various local newspaper articles and press appreciations. Many soldiers of all ranks were personally named in their local newspapers especially when they published articles pertaining to the missing and dead. Names also appeared when soldiers wrote letters home as a way of reaching out to loved ones and giving thanks for packages of cigarettes and other hard-to-get items at the front. Officers would have been gazetted when, for example, he commissioned or promoted. These are usually sourced in the London and Edinburgh Gazettes and their corresponding supplements.
• Military abbreviations: Many have been included throughout the site including the soldier remembrance pages. Typically, these abbreviations vary considerably, however, the full term usage is preferred. For example, the rank of Private is used extensively but you may see it abbreviated to Pte. or Pvt. The rank of Sergeant is sometimes spelt the archaic way of Serjeant or Sjt., but this largely depends on the source material. Lance Corporal is almost always abbreviated to L/Cpl. and Company Sergeant Major is simply CSM. There are many more military-based abbreviations, acronyms and initials used extensively throughout the First World War, but you get the point from these few examples.