3245027 Rifleman John BYERS, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles): 08/02/1943

Remembering Today

Casualty Details | CWGC
BYERS, JOHN
Rank: Rifleman
Service No: 3245027
Regiment/Service: Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)
Date of Death: 08/02/1943
Cemetery: HAMILTON WEST CEMETERY
Grave Reference: Sec. L. Grave 306.

 

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=125164494&PIpi=96570565

 

Any idea where and how John may have died? I've found only one death that year in the Hamilton area for a John Byers, Steelworker, aged 38 from tuberculosis. There was nothing for him in the Minor Records section where service returns should be recorded.

 

A view of his replaced headstone

Kyle


Scottish War Graves

 

Hi all

Hope you don't mind me butting in here but I feel I need some education with this particular thread.

Often with a CWGC burial we know where they died and often have War Diaries that tell us what action was going on at the time, and also we can sometimes find relevant info from Regimental histories etc to tell us from perhaps first hand accounts how and where a person died.

If they were a civilian that died in a hospital then obtaining a death certificate would tell us how they died.

This one seems to be a military death, not in action (although presumably on 'active service') but as 'home service' so how and where would the details of his death be recorded. I recall in my fathers regimental War Diaries that some of the soldiers sent to the new posting area before the main body arrived where killed by enemy bombs falling on the house they were using initially, it recorded their names and numbers even though they were 'OR's'.

What we do not know is was he killed on that day by enemy action, killed by some accident, died from injuries incurred prior to this date i.e. in hospital (and was that a military or civilian hospital). or did he die 'on duty' of natural causes. If he died in hospital following an 'accident' does his death still need to be recorded by the hospital or is it necessary for the military to assume responsibility for the recording of the details - in which case how would they be recorded and where???

I assume that as he has a CWGC headstone it would be a death 'on active service' (accidental or otherwise) rather than natural death, so could we assume it was some sort of training accident, and how the hell could we find the answer.

As said it is an education for myself, if anyone has any answers??

TD

 

Hi TD,

He will still have a Death Certificate with cause of death, as long as he was in service I believe it did not matter how he died to be commemorated by the CWGC.


Kyle

 

The John Byers that Amberdogs found is the right man. His death is recorded as 8th February 1943 from pulmonary tuberculosis in Glenlee hospital in Hamilton.

 

I find it odd there's no service information recorded by the son when he registered the death or mention of his death in the daily service death announcements in the Glasgow Herald.

 

It has been cleaned and re-engraved.