Talk:John Parr (soldier)

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Hello. I'm a little bit confused about what happened. The article says Parr's regiment left his body behind, and also says there were no dog tags then. How, then, could his body ever be identified, given that British forces retreated quite a long ways from the front where Parr was killed, and did not advance that far until much later in the war? From the statements in the article, there's room for quite a bit of skepticism. 207.174.201.18 00:37, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, murder victims don't usually wear dog tags and they're identified all the time - they are recognised by friends and family, or dental records etc. The doubt was as to whether Parr was dead or perhaps alive and a POW - once they found his remains, that was no longer in doubt. Parr is considered by the British Armed Forces to be the first British casualty of World War I. I am going to trust them as a source. If they were in doubt, we would have an Unknown Soldier as the first casualty, I'm sure. I'm trying to find more sources of info on Parr, but it's a tricky prospect - he's notable, but not notable enough to have extensive biographies written about him. --Estarriol ^talk 08:20, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, I don't mean to be difficult but here's what I can tell. Parr died near Mons, the British (and French) retreated from there within a day or two, and Allied forces did not advance that far again until the very last days of the war. Maybe Parr was treated differently from the mass of fatalities later in the war -- maybe he was buried by the Germans or exchanged for German fatalities or something like that. But I'm just speculating here; it seems pretty unlikely to me that the British would find and identify Parr's body fours years later, but from the statements in the article we just don't have enough to go on. All the best, 64.48.158.34 05:43, 23 April 2006 (UTC)