Frederick George Tapp

[Guest Simon Bull]

One of the men on the War Memorial which I am researching, Frederick George Tapp, of the 19th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), died on 29th April 1918. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.

However, his death certificate (which agrees with the date of death given by the CWGC and SDITGW) states that he died in Germany and that he died of sickness.

Is it possible that a man who died in Germany (and therefore must have been a Prisoner of War) would be commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial?

[Bob Coulson]

Simon,

Interesting as strictly speaking Tyne Cot is for the fallen and missing of the salient from August 16th 1917 to the end of the war.

One for Terry perhaps.

Bob.

[Terry Denham]

The fact that he is on a Memorial to the Missing obviously means his body was not recovered from wherever in Germany he died.

There is only one WW1 memorial for the missing in Germany - Cologne Memorial. This does have 19 missing PoW names on it but I am sure that this is not the sum total of those missing in Germany.

It is likely that his camp was some way from Cologne and so it was deemed inappropriate to put his name there. Perhaps he was much nearer the Belgian border or perhaps he went 'missing' from the Salient and was recorded as such when IWGC drew up the names in the early 1920s.

[Guest Simon Bull]

Thanks for the help gentlemen. Any further suggestions gratefully accepted.

It occurred to me to wonder whether the death certificate may be just plain wrong. It is difficult to judge the accuracy of such certificates because one does not get a facsimile of the original, merely a transcript by an individual working today in the General Register Office. Accordingly, one cannot tell at what point in time and at what date conclusions about the cause of death were arrived at. This has relevance because it may be that was discovered long after the war that he had died in Germany and the certificate prepared accordingly, but that information did not reach the CWGC who assumed him still to be missing in the battlefields aroudn Ypres.

I am working through the local papers to see what information is there and it mayb e that information in the local papers will indeed reveal that he was taken prisoner and solve the mystery.

The other relevant ingredient here is, I assume, a(nd I would be grateful to be corrected on this if I am wrong), that the effects of the flu virus were being felt by the date of his death. Accordingly it maybe that he died of flu in Germany.

[Terry Denham]

It is CWGC practice to inscribe the names of the missing on the nearest appropriate memorial to the site of their disappearance.

However, your suggestion is also very likely. It may well be that the certificate is either wrong or bears information which only came to light after the memorial list was drawn up. It is also possible that the information was known at the time but it was not communicated 'down the line'.

He could well have died of flu but there are many other possibilities also.