James Wilson AIKENS

-
Name James Wilson AIKENS Birth 28 May 1889 Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada Birth 28 May 1890 Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada [1]
Gender Male Census 6 Apr 1891 Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada [2]
Census 18 Apr 1901 Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada [1]
Note - According to an article I read about the first world war, the British did not institute the dual tag system for their troops until the fall of 1916. The practice prior to that time was to take the tag from the body and then bury the body on the spot (soon after a battle), so they knew who had died, where (roughly) and when, but when it came time to rebury the dead in orderly rows in cemeteries, often they could not identify the bodies they found. Two million soldiers of the total of six million who died (on both sides) during the war could not be identified; 220,000 of this number were commonwealth troops. The unidentified lie in graves under markers with no names, and bearing the inscription "Known unto God", which was coined by Rudyard Kipling, one of the original members of the War Graves Commission, whose son John lay in an "unknown" grave at the time (he has since been found). The names of those who could not be identified are inscribed on large monuments in the cemetary. It is quite possible, then, that neither James Aikens nor Robert Smith lie in marked graves over there.
SW Group 1 UKC 1881 N Death 15 Sep 1916 The Somme, France Person ID I438 Southwest Last Modified 21 Aug 2012
Father Thomas Henry AIKENS, b. 29 Aug 1863, Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada d. 21 Aug 1926, Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada
(Age 62 years)
Mother Adelaide Elizabeth PADDOCK, b. 27 Mar 1870, Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada d. 9 Dec 1952, Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada
(Age 82 years)
Family ID F31 Group Sheet | Family Chart
-
Event Map = Link to Google Earth
-
Sources - [S25] Thomas Aikens household, 1901 Census, Ontario, Canada: Wellington South (), Puslinch Township (- 4), p. 10, line 1, Library and Archives Canada, RG31, Microfilm Reel unknown film.
- [S22] James Aikens household, 1891 Census, Ontario, Canada: Wellington South (), Puslinch Township (f-4), p. 2, line 6, Library and Archives Canada, RG31, Microfilm Reel unknown film.
- [S25] Thomas Aikens household, 1901 Census, Ontario, Canada: Wellington South (), Puslinch Township (- 4), p. 10, line 1, Library and Archives Canada, RG31, Microfilm Reel unknown film.