While researching the fighting around St Venant (May 1940) for the Royal Welch Forum, of which I am one of the mods, I came across the original lists made by the French authorities when the Robecq Road mass grave of British soldiers was moved to the communal cemetery in 1941. These lists have yielded some interesting information.
The hand written list of the exhumations includes the following:
59 Inconnu
60 Woollez 3505531
61 Smith 3531103
62 Pearce 4448530
63 Tovey Adjutant 1045445
64 Inconnu
On the typed list of the reburials we find:
[1 Inconnu]
2 Towez 1045445 Sergent
3 Pearce 4448530
4 Smith 3531103
5 Woollez 3505531
[6 Inconnu]
The current situation, as listed by the CWGC, is:
4.A.1A Unknown
4.A.2A Tovey, Thomas George, 1045445 Sgt 44 Bty 13 ATR RA
4.A.3A Pearce, William Eric, 4448530 Pte, 2 DLI
4.A.4A Unknown, Manchester Regt
4.A.5A Wooley, James, 3525531 Pte, 2 Manchester Regt
4.A.6A Unknown
It is clear that these men were reburied in the order in which they were exhumed, and that the unknown soldier in grave 4.A.4A must be "Smith 3531103". Although no soldier with that number was killed in the war, the CWGC database has a close match: Pte Thomas Hayes Rostron 3531013 of 2 Manchesters who, as it happens, disappeared in the St Venant fighting on 26-27/05/1940 and is still officially missing. His name is on the Dunkirk Memorial.
I consider it highly probable that the unknown soldier in grave 4.A.1A of the St Venant Communal Cemetery is Pt Thomas Rostron, the son of James and Emily Hayes Rostron and the husband of Catherine Rostron, of Ince, Wigan, Lancashire.
I have mentioned this several times in correspondence with the CWGC but have never received a reaction.
John
