RESEARCH UPDATE No.2 - JUNE 2026 (Part 1)
INTRODUCTION
In April 2026 I was able to publicly announce that research had started into the known fatalities that occurred during Commando training in World War II. It also announced the launch of the GoFundMe page in March and that subscriptions had been secured for the British Newspaper Archives and Ancestry UK to access their phenomenal records and data. The search fees and subscriptions have been funded by the generosity of donations made through the GoFundMe link. This link remains open for donations to assist with the modest costs of research. £7.50 is the cost of 5 searches on Scotland’s People. A little really does go a long way. This update explains the research methodology and progress made since April 2026.
GoFundMe Link
GETTING STARTED
To provide a baseline for the research the start point was the date, time and place of death and that was provided by the legally required Death Certificate. Several open-source platforms were accessed to gather some basic information to bolster and cross reference details to move everyone’s life story forward. Starting with the details from a Scottish Death Certificate it’s possible to construct an outline of someone’s civilian life. Married men provide a helpful signpost for further research into marriage details and whether children born into the marriage. A marriage certificate builds additional layers of information about both families, employment, ages and a location. Several men were married when they died which allows the research to proceed with some confidence that some positive research could be carried out using marriage details. If the men were Scottish it’s relatively simple to obtain Birth Certificates. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website has also been an excellent source of grave details with additional information about the deceased’s family. Military forums, such as the Commando Veterans Archives have also provided additional detail and context as well as some photos of the deceased. One case presented an early challenge as the CWGC details didn’t lead to the discovery of a Death Certificate. The help desk at Scotland’s People identified that the age and surname spelling well incorrect. This has been reported to the CWGC as the headstone in Glasgow carries the wrong surname.
It was apparent at the start of the project that everyone’s circumstances would be different. Some very useful information was gleaned from the open-source sites that provided a very quick pen picture of the man and his life. The British Newspaper Archives were extremely useful in providing information. Photographs are such a useful addition to the research as they provide a feeling of the physical presence of each man. In one line of enquiry following the story of Sergeant Eric Hookway Gibson, 44 Commando, Royal Marines the only photograph on record of Eric was as a schoolboy. Working through friends of the project in Bideford, Erics birthplace, yielded a superb photo of Eric in uniform beside a Valentine tank and a head and shoulders photo. (See below) They were part of a family album in the back of a cupboard. Another local man with no family connections but interested in wartime military history got in touch with to let us know that he had an exercise book written by Eric of over 100 pages of his Royal Marines training. Eric features in the case study later in the newsletter.
Identifying commando training casualties will be, and remain, a difficult challenge. Medical records and war diaries are difficult to locate to very thein on detailed information. By promoting the research work and it’s aims it’s hoped that families will recognise that one of their family was injured during commando training and get in touch. Time management restricts the hours that can be committed to this research and the focus will remain in the known training fatalities.
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