Overview
- The Ministry of Defence’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre held rededication services in Belgium for Lance Corporals William Voice MM and Lionel Weller Sandell.
- Voice, of the 8th Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, was killed near Klein Zillebeke in 1917 and researchers matched a 1921 unknown soldier with a Military Medal to his last known position.
- Sandell, of the 10th Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, died during fighting near Comines in 1918 and his grave is now confirmed at Zantvoorde after decades listed as missing at the Menin Gate.
- The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which maintains war graves, installed new headstones bearing their names and family-chosen inscriptions and pledged lifelong care.
- JCCC caseworkers credited independent researchers whose study of service files and war diaries restored the soldiers’ identities and allowed relatives to honor them at their graves.