James Fredrick Hatcher - Our Project

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    Albert Communal Cemetery Extension
    11th April 2014

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    Looking for the grave reference of James Fredrick Hatcher
    Finding the grave reference 1.C.3

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    We find James' grave
    Its the one in the middle of this image

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    The gravestone with the Suffolk Regiment Insignia

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    Tom places the Marlesford cross on James' grave
    This was Tom's first soldier from Marlesford where he place his cross at the grave

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    The grave of James Fredrick Hatcher
    The cemetery is in an urban location

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    George and Tom at James' headstone

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    We signed the register at every cemetery and memorial we visited
    We left a message from Marlesford

We visited Albert Communal Cemetery Extension in the afternoon of Friday 11th April 2014.

The soldier we were searching for was James Fredrick Hatcher.

Our boys searched the cemetery register to find the name of James, this gave us the grave reference for the boys to search for. The boys had to find grave 1.C.3, which they did in no time at all. Tom was thrilled to find the grave of his first soldier from Marlesford, he had been holding his Marlesford cross in the car and looking out for the cemetery since leaving the Lochnagar Crater where we had spent lunch.

We spoke about the Suffolk Regiment insignia and how there had been many men from Suffolk, and all over the world, that signed up to 'Do their Bit' for the war effort. We also discussed how the war had devastated a generation of young men.

We always look around the graves when we visit cemeteries, as you can often find pieces of shrapnel and the metal balls that were packed inside bombs in the soil. We were thrilled to find a bullet in the soil around James' grave. Below are pictures of the bullet we found.

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You can see that it is a small calibre bullet, probably for a pistol. It is 30mm in length and approximately 7mm in diameter, quite clearly the bullet has 100 years of corrosion.

If you have any information on James Hatcher please contact us