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The Searchers: The Quest for the Lost of the First World War
By the end of the First World War, the whereabouts of more than half a million British soldiers were unknown. Most were presumed dead, lost forever under the battlefields of northern France and Flanders.
In The Searchers, Robert Sackville-West brings together the extraordinary, moving accounts of those who dedicated their lives to the search for the missing. These stories reveal the remarkable lengths to which people will go to give meaning to their loss: Rudyard Kipling's quest for his son's grave, E. M. Forster’s conversations with traumatised soldiers in hospital in Alexandria, desperate attempts to communicate with the spirits of the dead, the campaign to establish the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and the exhumation and reburial in military cemeteries of hundreds of thousands of bodies.
It was a search that would span a century: from the department set up to investigate the fate of missing comrades in the war’s aftermath, to the present day, when DNA profiling continues to aid efforts to recover, identify and honour these men. As the rest of the country found ways to repair and move on, countless families were consumed by this mission, undertaking arduous, often hopeless, journeys to discover what happened to their husbands, brothers and sons.
Giving prominence to the deep, personal battles of those left behind, The Searchers brings the legacy of war vividly to life in a testament to the bravery, compassion and resilience of the human spirit.
In The Searchers, Robert Sackville-West brings together the extraordinary, moving accounts of those who dedicated their lives to the search for the missing. These stories reveal the remarkable lengths to which people will go to give meaning to their loss: Rudyard Kipling's quest for his son's grave, E. M. Forster’s conversations with traumatised soldiers in hospital in Alexandria, desperate attempts to communicate with the spirits of the dead, the campaign to establish the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and the exhumation and reburial in military cemeteries of hundreds of thousands of bodies.
It was a search that would span a century: from the department set up to investigate the fate of missing comrades in the war’s aftermath, to the present day, when DNA profiling continues to aid efforts to recover, identify and honour these men. As the rest of the country found ways to repair and move on, countless families were consumed by this mission, undertaking arduous, often hopeless, journeys to discover what happened to their husbands, brothers and sons.
Giving prominence to the deep, personal battles of those left behind, The Searchers brings the legacy of war vividly to life in a testament to the bravery, compassion and resilience of the human spirit.
336 pages
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 26, 2023
Poignant and fascinating account of those who searched for and attempted to identify the thousands of ‘missing’ from WWI. Robert Sackville-West’s research covers the work of the Red Cross and War Office in creating organisations to locate makshift graves and identify bodies, the construction of war cemeteries and memorials, and the development of these organisations up to the present day. He also examines the personal quests of the bereaved, from visiting psychics to making pilgrimages to the battlefields, and highlights the involvement of famous figures such as Kipling and Forster.
The early chapters are quite structured and coherent, while some of the later ones become more fragmented and less connected, but there is plenty of fascinating detail and a clear focus on the desire of all organisations to treat every fallen soldier with respect and equal consideration. The stories are often touching, and very interesting and made me reflect on attitudes to grief and loss in the face of such widespread destruction.
This was beautifully written and a new and original perspective among the wealth of WWI history books. Really enjoyable and worthwhile reading.
The early chapters are quite structured and coherent, while some of the later ones become more fragmented and less connected, but there is plenty of fascinating detail and a clear focus on the desire of all organisations to treat every fallen soldier with respect and equal consideration. The stories are often touching, and very interesting and made me reflect on attitudes to grief and loss in the face of such widespread destruction.
This was beautifully written and a new and original perspective among the wealth of WWI history books. Really enjoyable and worthwhile reading.
October 31, 2021
Strangely beautiful. Thoughts on parallels between extended grief from families who never learned the fate or final resting place of their child and the restrictions on mourning rituals under Covid were interesting.
October 6, 2023
"I shall never believe,’ wrote the mother of one of the hundreds of thousands whose bodies were missing, ‘that my son is dead until his grave is found and it adds greatly to the sorrow of his father and me that we should be left in this awful state of uncertainty"
I'm 100% going to visit Menin Gate. Handily, one of the stories told was about somebody that died during the same week, and was part of the same tunnelling co, as my only ancestor killed in WWI - who probably had the same fate. 'The Searchers' never found him so he's on the list of the missing still, but gives a hint to how he probably ended up. However incredibly unlikely it is, I also learned he fits the criteria to potentially be The Unknown Warrior.
Good for Rudyard Kipling for being so belligerent on poor bodies and sacrifice having the same value as the rich and connected.
I'd never heard of 'Pals Battalions' or the Meningate at Midnight painting before....lump in my throat from both.
I'm 100% going to visit Menin Gate. Handily, one of the stories told was about somebody that died during the same week, and was part of the same tunnelling co, as my only ancestor killed in WWI - who probably had the same fate. 'The Searchers' never found him so he's on the list of the missing still, but gives a hint to how he probably ended up. However incredibly unlikely it is, I also learned he fits the criteria to potentially be The Unknown Warrior.
Good for Rudyard Kipling for being so belligerent on poor bodies and sacrifice having the same value as the rich and connected.
I'd never heard of 'Pals Battalions' or the Meningate at Midnight painting before....lump in my throat from both.
November 22, 2021
A remarkable and fascinating read. In places this book is quite haunting and deserves a place in everyone's library... It's particularly apt perhaps to read it at this time of year. We should recommend it to our children and grandchildren too... Lest we forget
November 17, 2021
A book about searching, finding, identifying and mourning the dead of WW1. Full of little details, often seeming disjointed and all about one person or family, yet a wealth of odd facts and stories, it perhaps stands as metaphor for the confusions and losses of that time.
March 31, 2022
Heartbreaking, yet fascinating. Utterly heartbreaking, yet immensely fascinating.
November 22, 2023
I read this immediately after reading David Crane's 'Empires of the Dead' which this book dovetails rather nicely. Indeed this book seems to have built one chapter on the work done by Crane in 'Empires of the Dead', which is fine.
It is an interesting history of how the British - and its Empire - responded to the dead of World War One, in particular those men who died but have no known grave and the need for relatives to have 'closure'. The way that the uncertainty kept people filled with hope even after the certainty of their relatives death was established. The book begins with the story of Lt Hugh Williamson whose name was only finally added to war memorials in 2001, which was 50 years after his mother had died because the family refused to accept he’d died.
He covers the process of identification, of burial and re-burial, of the creation of the Cenotaph and the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. All of which seem to have come together from amateur efforts that eventually became official.
Sackville-West divides from Crane with his chapters on Spiritualism, which offered hope to those who had lost relatives. And Pilgrimage, which talks about visits to the battlefields and grave sites in the post-war period. Both these chapters are fascinating. The way that veterans returning to the sites of their battles noticed that everything was changing as nature reclaimed battlefields and the towns they knew were rebuilt and reoccupied.
The final chapter deals with the ongoing efforts of identification and exhumation. Bodies are constantly being found by farmers or building work. And there are organisations that deal with them, move them to graveyards and try and identify them. Modern archaeological techniques combined with DNA have helped identify people who were previously 'missing, presumed dead'. The process of how they are the remains are restored and then re-buried, often with relatives present is quite moving. The fact that we still care about giving the dead names is admirable.
In his epilogue Sackville-West talks about how remembrance is changing. The last surviving veteran of WW1 is dead. What does remembrance now signify?
It is an interesting history of how the British - and its Empire - responded to the dead of World War One, in particular those men who died but have no known grave and the need for relatives to have 'closure'. The way that the uncertainty kept people filled with hope even after the certainty of their relatives death was established. The book begins with the story of Lt Hugh Williamson whose name was only finally added to war memorials in 2001, which was 50 years after his mother had died because the family refused to accept he’d died.
He covers the process of identification, of burial and re-burial, of the creation of the Cenotaph and the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. All of which seem to have come together from amateur efforts that eventually became official.
Sackville-West divides from Crane with his chapters on Spiritualism, which offered hope to those who had lost relatives. And Pilgrimage, which talks about visits to the battlefields and grave sites in the post-war period. Both these chapters are fascinating. The way that veterans returning to the sites of their battles noticed that everything was changing as nature reclaimed battlefields and the towns they knew were rebuilt and reoccupied.
The final chapter deals with the ongoing efforts of identification and exhumation. Bodies are constantly being found by farmers or building work. And there are organisations that deal with them, move them to graveyards and try and identify them. Modern archaeological techniques combined with DNA have helped identify people who were previously 'missing, presumed dead'. The process of how they are the remains are restored and then re-buried, often with relatives present is quite moving. The fact that we still care about giving the dead names is admirable.
In his epilogue Sackville-West talks about how remembrance is changing. The last surviving veteran of WW1 is dead. What does remembrance now signify?
April 12, 2024
This was my airplane reading coming home from Ireland, after finding it in the main bookstore in Limerick, Ireland. I was first introduced to the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission years ago when I first visited the UK and have since included them in any later travel plans to areas where they have and are often still working. This is not actually a history of the CWGC but a history of how they came to be going back to the early efforts during the First World War of recording casualties and dealing properly with the remains of what was rapidly becoming a citizen army vice the formerly professional (and very small) body of men. The author then carries forward from the wartime efforts to the immediate postwar years and the later impact of the Second World War on this effort, finally becoming the CWGC we know of today. This is not an exhaustive history but a good and even impressive popular history accounting of the hard work contributed by everyone involved. Also recounted are a number of specific cases offered as specific examples of the accomplishments in these efforts across the years. I did find this at times a difficult read and had to pause before I returned to it, but at less than 300 pages of text in the main body it's an informative and satisfying treatment of the subject. I will be holding on to my copy of this.
April 30, 2024
[23 Sep 2022] This book is an excellent, well written and authoritative account of the pain and suffering of those left behind in the first World War (the supposedly 'Great War'). It covers more ground than expected and includes the detailed accounts of families left behind and in particular those without graves to visit. It covers the remarkable work of organisations that searched for the missing, treating each mangled body with respect and reverence and doing their best to return them to their family's knowledge - sensing from the early days the importance of a place, a grave, and a knowing of what happened to underpin grief.
It shows the lengths they went to in helping families and others to grieve what was horrific pain and loss. Families spent their entire lives looking for their sons, like the Kiplings and assisting in the difficult task of assisting in the search, like E M Forster. The spiritual seeking of contact is described and the desperation of the need is set out. My only feedback - the photographs I don't think related at all well to the text and the last Chapter - how modern DNA science is playing its part (which to be frank, is what I thought the entire book was about) is overly brief and feels tacked on. As if it wasn't of much interest to the author and is there because it had to be. The idea that over 100 years after the war people still search for the missing in order to return them to their families is such a humanistic feature that it warranted more detailed description. Overall a remarkable achievement - meticulously researched, well written and engaging account of an important, but neglected aspect of history and the human condition.
It shows the lengths they went to in helping families and others to grieve what was horrific pain and loss. Families spent their entire lives looking for their sons, like the Kiplings and assisting in the difficult task of assisting in the search, like E M Forster. The spiritual seeking of contact is described and the desperation of the need is set out. My only feedback - the photographs I don't think related at all well to the text and the last Chapter - how modern DNA science is playing its part (which to be frank, is what I thought the entire book was about) is overly brief and feels tacked on. As if it wasn't of much interest to the author and is there because it had to be. The idea that over 100 years after the war people still search for the missing in order to return them to their families is such a humanistic feature that it warranted more detailed description. Overall a remarkable achievement - meticulously researched, well written and engaging account of an important, but neglected aspect of history and the human condition.
March 27, 2023
This is an excellent book if you wish to understand how the dead were dealt with in the First World War, the establishment of the now Commonwealth War Graves Commission and how this all affected public and private grief and mourning, including the establishment of the Cenotaph in Whitehall and the tomb of the unknown soldier.
It is well written with clear research and references. It is not an academic tome and whilst easy to read I found it best to cover one chapter at a time.
There is highly appropriate praise for the work that the CWGC continues to do in dealing with new bodies as they come to light, with dignity and care, carrying out extensive research to identify each one. Where possible discovering living relatives who can attend a solemn re-internment.
One overriding feeling I was left with was that although the original Cenotaph gathering took place in July 1919 and was secular, it has now been "hijacked" by the Church of England, politicians and the Royal British Legion and turned into something it was never intended to be. Leaving us with that abomination of a word "Remembrancetide".
It is well written with clear research and references. It is not an academic tome and whilst easy to read I found it best to cover one chapter at a time.
There is highly appropriate praise for the work that the CWGC continues to do in dealing with new bodies as they come to light, with dignity and care, carrying out extensive research to identify each one. Where possible discovering living relatives who can attend a solemn re-internment.
One overriding feeling I was left with was that although the original Cenotaph gathering took place in July 1919 and was secular, it has now been "hijacked" by the Church of England, politicians and the Royal British Legion and turned into something it was never intended to be. Leaving us with that abomination of a word "Remembrancetide".
September 17, 2022
Subliminal…
From the first page to the last, beautifully written. Sackville-West oozes reverence and solemnity. The work of the IWGC and it’s successor, the CWGC has always thought to have been precise in every way, but S-W puts the reader firmly in the picture that in the early days it wasn’t always so faithful in its retrieval and recording of the fallen, outlining the obvious example of heartbreaking mis recording of John Kipling’s recovery which didn’t come to light till 1992. The conditions that the retrieval parties had to cope with is certainly an eye opener. Hordes of rats sheltering in rib cages to plaques of maggots devouring long decaying flesh that led to the inevitable melancholy and indiscipline of the retrieval parties. Not only did the fallen die so we could be free, but the survivors tasked with searching for them had to fight the battlefield horrors of the aftermath. S-W tells it all with a cushion of reverence that can at times coax the odd tear. A must read for anyone with an interest in the recording of the fallen from war. 5 Stars.
From the first page to the last, beautifully written. Sackville-West oozes reverence and solemnity. The work of the IWGC and it’s successor, the CWGC has always thought to have been precise in every way, but S-W puts the reader firmly in the picture that in the early days it wasn’t always so faithful in its retrieval and recording of the fallen, outlining the obvious example of heartbreaking mis recording of John Kipling’s recovery which didn’t come to light till 1992. The conditions that the retrieval parties had to cope with is certainly an eye opener. Hordes of rats sheltering in rib cages to plaques of maggots devouring long decaying flesh that led to the inevitable melancholy and indiscipline of the retrieval parties. Not only did the fallen die so we could be free, but the survivors tasked with searching for them had to fight the battlefield horrors of the aftermath. S-W tells it all with a cushion of reverence that can at times coax the odd tear. A must read for anyone with an interest in the recording of the fallen from war. 5 Stars.
January 17, 2023
A solid, interesting if episodic book. Each chapter has a separate theme with little connection beyond it involves the missing of WW1. Well written and I would say a good book for someone fairly new to the subject as quite a lot of it is written elsewhere. For example there is a chapter on the foundation of the CWGC and the cemeteries which is a subject of several other entire books.
Never the less well written and interesting and a good primer.
One final point is the final section which mentions the CV19 and was obviously written during the height of the pandemic when it’s effects seemed transformational. Now in early 2023 it seems more transitory and it is interesting to see how perceptions of very recent events can change so fast.
Never the less well written and interesting and a good primer.
One final point is the final section which mentions the CV19 and was obviously written during the height of the pandemic when it’s effects seemed transformational. Now in early 2023 it seems more transitory and it is interesting to see how perceptions of very recent events can change so fast.
April 2, 2022
Incredible book telling the story of our country's history that we take so much for granted. The harrowing search for and identification of bodies on the battlegrounds of Europe, the erection of the cenotaph, the setting up of the Commonwealth war Graves Commission, the adoption of the poppy as the emblem of British commemoration, Remembrance Day and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. The whereabouts of half a million soldiers were unknown at the end of the First World War so men, and women, dedicated their lives to search for the missing. Bodies are still being unearthed and reburied and DNA profiling continues to aid efforts to identify them.
February 17, 2024
I was lent this book by a local Commonwealth War Graves Commission volunteer, and I have to say that it is superb. The story of how the war dead were dealt with as the First World War drew to an end is fascinating. A blend of public sentiment, individual effort and official policy makes for a fascinating narrative. Similarly the account of how the act of remembrance has evolved over the ensuing years makes for compelling reading. Meticulously researched and beautifully written this is a work of the very highest order. Recommended.
February 19, 2022
Chapters about different ways of searching for missing WWI soldiers eg one about searchers at the time interviewing soldiers to ask if they knew what happened to orhers; one about Rudyard Kipling's search for his missing son; one about mediums at the time; one about present day searching. I read it from cover to cover in a week - not bad for non-fiction. Very interesting and I really enjoyed it.
One of a list of 75 books of 2021 I am working my way through
One of a list of 75 books of 2021 I am working my way through
March 10, 2024
4.5 stars. Fascinating history about the creation of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and its predecessors for the location and internment of the reams of WWI dead. Even more affecting are the chapters on the moving quests of the families and the living to locate, identify, honor, and inter the deceased during and after the terrible conflict. Sackville-West has provided a sensitive and powerful account. Well worth your time.
October 12, 2022
4.5/5 An excellent book about the missing soldiers of WWI and the searchers and organisations who set to identify them. There were more in depth chapters about E M Forster's time in the Middle East as a searcher, Rudyard Kipling's life long search for his son, spiritualism and the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. One of the best books I've read about the aftermath of WWI.
April 4, 2023
Very good,but has the odd flaw.
Learnt a lot about the people and organizations involved. Can at times seem a little long winded. A must read if you are interested the First World War.
Learnt a lot about the people and organizations involved. Can at times seem a little long winded. A must read if you are interested the First World War.
October 29, 2022
Detours off into séances and repetition from time to time and I'd liked to have learned more about the organisations and process but overall excellent.
June 16, 2023
Lots of sections in this book brought tears to my eyes The immense and senseless loss of so many.
In my opinion, it's an absoloute must read. Puts so much into perspective!
In my opinion, it's an absoloute must read. Puts so much into perspective!
March 28, 2024
Brilliant book about a subject that’s not really talked about or thought off
August 6, 2022
An interesting read. The search for missing soldiers started very early in the war and has continued to the present day. 500,000 soldiers from Britain and the Commonwealth were still missing at the end of the war, though many were buried in graves marked Unknown. The story also follows families who tried for years to find their sons. Mediums were consulted and battlefields visited. DNA is now used to endeavour to name the soldiers remains which continue to be uncovered. The story of the burial pits found at Pheasant Wood Fromelles in the early 2000's is covered.
February 26, 2024
This was a between four and five stars book for me as I loved the first half which talked more about how the searchers were set up and what happened with different missing people but as I got towards the end I found myself bogged down with all the detail and the chapters were less interesting to me.
Perhaps the most interesting part was about E. M. Forster who was famously a searcher in Alexandria, Egypt and found a missing pilot in captivity. He went missing over Kut - where my grandfather was serving at the time...
Perhaps the most interesting part was about E. M. Forster who was famously a searcher in Alexandria, Egypt and found a missing pilot in captivity. He went missing over Kut - where my grandfather was serving at the time...
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews