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Thiepval
Museum

Accueil › Thiepval Museum Presentation › The Missing

The Missing

‘The Missing’ are the soldiers of the First World War whose remains have either never been found, or were found but could not be identified.

Mur dédié aux soldats disparus dans le musée à Thiepval © Pascal Brunet

Some are buried in the Commonwealth cemeteries, in graves marked with the words: “A Soldier of the Great War known unto God”.

When the Thiepval Memorial was unveiled in 1932, a total of 73,367 names were inscribed upon its pillars. This number regularly changes as more research is carried out and through scientific progress, which enables the remains of some men, recently found upon the former battlefields, to be identified.

The soldiers commemorated at Thiepval were posted missing between June 1915 and 20 March 1918.
90% of these men died during the 141 days of the Battle of the Somme (July to mid-November 1916); 12,000 of them on the 1st July, the very first day of the battle.

The five year long war caused the deaths of 10 million men; on the Western Front (from Belgium to Verdun) the total number of Missing amounted to almost a million. The average age of these men was 25.

The majority of the soldiers commemorated on the memorial are English, Irish, Scottish, Canadian, Australian and American soldiers enlisted in the British Army, and servicemen of the South African forces

Some well-known men commemorated on the memorial:

George Butterworth, Musician
Rupert Inglis, professional rugby player for England
Cedric Dickens, Charles Dickens’ grandson
Hector Munroe, Saki, author of short stories
Thomas Michael Kettle, famous writer and politician

Researching a Missing Soldier

The particularity of the Visitor Centre is the computer database where visitors can gain information about the Missing commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
This database is only available at Thiepval and was created in 2003 by Pam and Ken Linge, retired accountants from Britain who wanted to ensure the Missing were never forgotten by collecting as much personal information about them as possible. Today, the personal stories of almost 12,000 men of Thiepval are included in the database, an ongoing project that continues to grow each year. The base – which is on free access –  is only available here in the Visitor Centre and updated periodically.

Others research websites

For more information about soldiers of the First World War, various websites can be consulted:
Mémoire des Hommes, this website has been created by the French Ministry of Defence and provides information and records from its archival collections about French soldiers who fought in various modern conflicts.
Sépultures de Guerre, now part of  Mémoire des Hommes, enables researchers to find the graves of almost 660,000 soldiers who died in recent conflicts. Only soldiers buried in military cemeteries and plots maintained by the Ministry of Defence are included in its database.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, this website enables families and researchers to discover the places of burial and commemoration of 1.7 million men and women who died in the First and Second World Wars.
Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, this website is useful for researching the German war dead.

 

Historial of the Great War
Highlights of the Great War
A Brief Look of the Great War
The Battle of The Somme
Presentation of the Historial
Our partners
The Partners of the Historial
The Somme Battlefields’ Partner
Useful Information
News
Peronne Museum
Presentation
Around the Historial
The Castle
Architecture
The Museum's Services
Museum Layout and Tour
Museum Layout
Visiting the Museum
Collection
The Collection and Themes
Otto Dix
Object of the Month
Seasonal Exhibition
Saint-Chamond Tank
Old seasonal exhibitions
Thiepval Museum
Presentation
Memorial
Museum Layout and Visiting the Museum
The Missing
Battlefields in the Somme
Presentation
The Remembrance Trail
The Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin
Groups Tours
Adults groups visits
Schools Groups
Seminars and Professionals
Our Resources
Educational Department
Presentation
Preparing your visit to the Historial
International Research Center
Presentation
Scholarship
Summer School
Encyclopedia of the Great War
Documentation Center
Exhibitions loans
Press
Links and resources useful

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