It’s a while since I have found the time to do a good batch of new research and before I started I decided to sort out my old paper records, from the mid 1990’s and earlier, some of which I did not have scanned. The first one I found was

The article of interest is the 100 years ago one, which features Mr George Brine who is my 3x Great Grandfather and Mrs William Bowditch is my 2xG Grandmother. So who were the grandchildren, well one was Frederick Bowditch a Great Great Uncle, whose details I already had the second took at bit more tracking down, using the Census and the good old FreeBMD I found Arthur Philip Diment son of Edwin and Clara Diment nee Brine.
While checking his details in Ancestry, I noticed a hint for a “Died in the Great War” entry and on checking it found this was indeed the correct Arthur, serving with the 14th Worcestershire Regiment. A search of the burnt documents did not turn up a record, but the medal rolls provided more information and a “punt of £3.50” to the National Archives, got me a copy of the battalions War diary so I could check what was happening on the day he was killed.
The location was P30 near Forceville, well that was helpful, and I could see several OR (other ranks) killed on the 18th, but none on the 19th, but it seems likely the list on the 19th were actually killed on the 18th in a Gas attack.
Another search turned up the “Trench Maps” for the correct date and place, on the National Library of Scotland in a fully “zoomable” format, a really great find. These show the trenches he was digging look to have been second line ones. Behind the mass of the front line.
Finally it was off to the Commonwealth War Graves site to find where he was buried.
I found him easily enough and was able to view his details. As a final check, I did a google search for the War memorial and turned up a Flicker posting by Michael Day with the details of the memorial and a list with the details of all the people listed.
One final search found the Worcestershire World War One Hundred with more information on the people killed in the same attack as Arthur.
The moral of this tale. This one newspaper article sent me off on a long trail though a good few sources I knew of, but had not needed to use since they all went online. The one problem? I have dozens more clippings to process.
All the new records and databases coming online is what keeps me excited about continuing to research. It’s nice, too, to remember the collateral lines who have no descendants, especially Arthur as we are in the centennial years of the war to end all wars.
Really enjoyed your case study of detail by detail research and discovery, a good reminder that each clue leads to more clues we should follow up.
I love newspaper articles. They give so much context and do indeed point us towards sources we might not have looked at otherwise for information about our ancestors and their lives. Thanks for sharing!