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Auction: 23002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 65

The unusual campaign pair awarded to Private S. Biddle, Gordon Highlanders, a 'Body Snatcher' who was attached to 66 Graves Registration Unit, who had the unenviable task of identifying the dead and dealing with the mortuary affairs of Commonwealth forces in South-East Asia at the end of the Second World War

By the very nature of their work, they would undoubtedly have discovered evidence of War Crimes and provided the appropriate evidence in any subsequent proceedings

War Medal 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, S. E. Asia 1945-46 (14918297 Pte S Biddle, Gordons), very fine (2)

Stanley Bernard Biddle was born on 8 October 1926 in Wolverhampton and worked an Electrical Engineer before commencing his National Service in 1945 serving in South-East Asia. He was discharged in 1947 and died in Wolverhampton in May 1999.

Graves Registration Units

The Graves Registration Units had the difficult and unpleasant task of searching for and identifying the numerous Allied soldiers who had been killed or were missing during the campaign in South-East Asia often with limited means of identifying corpses.

Graves Registration Units were set up under the control of the military authorities and tasked with searching for the graves and remains of the war dead and conducting the battlefield exhumation and reburials which resulted.

Where burials had occurred in established burial grounds, with clearly marked graves, the graves were simply recorded and registered. In most other circumstances, the bodies required exhumation and reburial, during which process attempts were made to identify the individuals. Battlefields were searched for small cemeteries and isolated graves, with the previously unburied tended to. All of those found were gathered into 'concentration' cemeteries, either newly created or built up around already existing burial grounds. Despite the difficulty and unpleasantness of the work, the exhumation squads were methodical and meticulous in their searches and, most of them having seen active service themselves, were painstaking in their search for anything that would help identify a fallen comrade. Nevertheless, battlefield conditions meant that many of these vital indicators were lost, and a high proportion of the bodies found remained unknown.

It was the job of the officer in charge of these search parties to record details about each body recovered, including the location where the remains were found, whether a cross was found on the grave, and any regimental particulars or other means of identification found at the time. These details were written on a ticket which was attached to the remains prior to their removal and reburial. The cemetery officer would be present at each reburial, and it would be his duty to record, on a Burial Return form, all the information that had been written on the original ticket, as well as recording the plot, row and grave number of the reburial. These forms were collected daily and passed to the Army Burial Officer, who would then arrange for a copy to be sent to the Department of Graves Registrations and Enquiries. The Registration officer was then responsible for registering the new graves, and for preparing comprehensive reports of the new cemeteries.

The grave registration, concentration and exhumation records produced as a result of this work were passed to the Imperial War Graves Commission and form the basis for the information held on those we commemorate.

Sold together with an archive of original material comprising:

i)
Gordon Highlanders cap Badge and sweetheart brooch.

ii)
Corporal's stripes.

iii)
An official permission slip to retain one Japanese Sword.

iv)
Soldiers discharge book.

v)
Letters addressed to the recipients '66 G.R.U. S.E.A.C.'

vi)
Photo of the recipient.

vii)
National ID Card.

viii)
Five other cloth badges.

ix)
A rare 'War Graves Unit' cloth epaulette, of local manufacture.

Subject to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium. For more information please view Terms and Conditions for Buyers.

Sold for
£380

Starting price
£240