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Project ALIAS: A major scheme to locate men who served using a 'different' name

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There are many fascinating quirks within the Pension Record Cards which have been saved by The Western Front Association. One particular aspect that has come to the fore is the greater than expected use of aliases by soldiers. Without going into the reasons soldiers used pseudonyms,[1] the use of these aliases has been noticed by several people usi…

Project ALIAS - early results and discoveries

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After launching an appeal for volunteers to work on Project ALIAS in mid-February, just over a week into the scheme it's probably useful to share very early results. The idea behind Project ALIAS is to identify the thousands of men who served in the army (and Navy and Airforce) but did so under a pseudonym. It is believed there are many thousands …

Project ALIAS reveals the man who is listed twice

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As the project to learn more about those men who served in the British Army using a false name continues, various fascinating examples are being found. One of these, tracked down by 'Alias volunteer' Chris Ludlam is that of L/Cpl John Cross of the 19th Middlesex. Chris noted the 'alias' referenced on the pension card as shown in the image below. …

Are you confined to barracks with Covid 19? Here's a suggestion

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Many Western Front Association members may be having to 'self isolate' at the moment, and this must be a real strain. To give yourself an interest members may wish to become involved with Project ALIAS, the full details of which are available here on the WFA web site: Project ALIAS: what is it and how is it going? An example of just one of the m…

Bulletin 116 : April 2020 out now

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Bulletin arrived through member's letterboxes this morning and is going out to Digital Members right now. The following provides a contents listing for Bulletin 116. April 2020 Contents Introduction and News President’s Introduction : Professor Gary Sheffield Rob Thompson receives The Western Front Association Hero Award Obituary: Geoff …

John Shirley - the soldier with two commemorations

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The 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles was a regular battalion, which for most of the war was part of the 8th Division. As a consequence of the re-organisation of the BEF in February 1918 it was moved across to the 36th (Ulster) Division. During the course of the war, the battalion had fatalities in excess of 1200 officers and men. Of these fataliti…

Further examples of unusual Pension Claims

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As the various projects WFA members are working on move forward, it seems a good time to update members on just a couple more examples of unusual pension claims that would not have been identified had 'Project Alias' and 'Project Hometown' not been set up. Previous reference has been made to cases where multiple brothers have been killed in the Gr…

Ep. 168 – Operation Alias – David Tattersfield

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David Tattersfield, Development Trustee of the WFA, talks about Operation Alias, a project by the WFA to identify men who fell in the Great War and served under an alias or ‘false’ name. Your browser does not support the audio element. …

Accidentally killed by one of his own : 5 June 1918

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It won't be a surprise to anyone to know that patrols could be dangerous. We have heard recently about 'Patrolling' in this presentation by Fraser Skirrow: 'Fighting Spirit: Patrolling and Raiding with the West Yorks’. During the work that is currently being undertaken by a large group of 'Project Alias' and 'Project Hometown' volunteers, the pen…

Project Alias - the results and a searchable database

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During the First World War, for a variety of reasons, many soldiers enlisted and served under an ‘alias’ name i.e. a name other than their family name. Official records often exist for these men under both of their names – their ‘real name’ and their ‘alias name’. This makes it difficult for family members and other researchers to find all of the r…