News
22-July 2010 –
LGC Forensics leads
success in the DNA analysis of Fromelles war grave
samples
LGC Forensics’ DNA analysis helped identify soldiers who died
at the Battle of Fromelles in northern France in the First World
War
LGC Forensics, the
UK’s largest independent provider of forensic services, has worked
closely with the Australian and British Governments, Commonwealth War Graves Commission and
Ministry of Defence on the specialised recovery and identification
of soldiers who fell at the Battle of Fromelles in Northern France,
on 19 July 1916.
Representatives from LGC Forensics attended a
ceremony in Fromelles on 19 July 2010, the 94th anniversary of the
battle, to dedicate the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military
Cemetery to bury the last of the 250 soldiers.
Archaeologists began recovering the remains of
the 250 soldiers in May 2009. LGC Forensics obtained DNA
information from the Y chromosome (for paternal inheritance) and
mitochondrial DNA (for maternal inheritance) from these remains.
LGC Forensics also received samples from over 1000 potential
relatives from across the world and matched DNA from these donors
with samples extracted from soldiers’ remains.
LGC Forensics was contracted by the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission and has been responsible for
leading all the DNA analysis on the samples taken from the site in
Fromelles. To date we are pleased to say that 96 individuals have
been positively identified using the specifically modified
extraction procedures and DNA analysis in conjunction with
artifacts, anthropological and historical data. This is a
significant scientific achievement for LGC Forensics and for all
those involved with the project. The project remains open and
continues to look for more identifications.
Attending the ceremony in Fromelles, Steve Allen, Managing Director of LGC Forensics
commented: “LGC is honoured to have been invited to this moving
ceremony and extremely proud to have played a key part in this
important project. By combining the ingenuity of our forensic
scientists with LGC’s strength in research, we have been able to
develop new methods of analysing DNA to help identify the soldiers
at Fromelles.“
With almost 100 years’ experience of forensic work, from crime
scene to the courtroom, LGC Forensics has established its position
as the UK’s largest, full service independent forensic science
provider. With eight forensic laboratories across the UK and two in
Germany, the company provides specific expertise in a broad range
of forensic services, to address the simplest to the most complex
of cases, in major crime. We provide casework and analytical
services in DNA techniques, controlled drugs, toxicology, ecology,
questioned documents, digital crime, firearms and ballistics and
forensic pathology in support of modern policing.
LGC Forensics’ formidable expertise and casework success has
helped unravel the mystery of some of the UK’s most publicised and
intractable cases. Convictions in the Damilola Taylor, Rachel
Nickell and Chantel Taylor murders and the exoneration of the
Cardiff 3 and Colin Stagg suspects were all achieved through the
work of the LGC Forensics team.
- Ends
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Notes to
editors
About LGC Forensics
LGC Forensics (www.lgcforensics.com) is the
division of LGC with specific expertise in a broad range of
forensic services, to address the simplest to the most complex of
cases, in major crime. We provide casework and analytical services
in DNA techniques, controlled drugs, toxicology, ecology,
questioned documents, digital crime, firearms and ballistics and
forensic pathology in support of modern policing.
With eight forensic laboratories across the UK and two in
Germany, LGC Forensics is able to provide a range of bespoke
services at a local level, therefore attracting a wide variety of
customers drawn from police forces and other law enforcement
agencies, HM Coroners, government departments, defence lawyers, as
well as private corporations and individuals.
LGC Forensics has access to a wide range of other specialist
teams across the LGC Group including a close working relationship
with the largest group of Home Office Pathologists, Forensic
Pathology Services and a unique Victim Identification and Mass
Fatalities Team. LGC Forensics laboratories are located in
Teddington (Middlesex), Bromsgrove (Worcestershire), Culham
(Oxfordshire), St. Neots (Cambridgeshire) Runcorn and Risley
(Cheshire), Tamworth (Staffordshire), with a specialist firearms
facility in Leeds. German operations are located in Cologne and
Berlin.
About the Commonwealth War Graves
Commission
Established by Royal Charter in 1917, the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission (www.cwgc.org) pays tribute to the
1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the
two world wars. It is a non-profit-making organisation that was
founded by Sir Fabian Ware.
Since its inception, the Commission has constructed 2,500 war
cemeteries and plots, erecting headstones over graves and, in
instances where the remains are missing, inscribing the names of
the dead on permanent memorials. Over one million casualties are
now commemorated at military and civil sites in some 150
countries.