| Content Note | Includes: Internal note concerning enquiry from William Hopkins, father of the casualty, and Mr. MacLeod, Canadian High Commissioner’s Office, who wished to travel to Belgium to locate and identify the body of Private Hopkins, dated 21 January 1919; letter from Brigadier-General, Directorate Graves Registration & Enquiries (DGRE), to the Director-General, Graves Registration & Enquiries regarding the identification of Private Hopkins, which was confirmed by a cranium wound and fountain pen found in the inner tunic pocket, and Private L. McKeown, who was buried in the adjoining grave, dated 24 November 1920; letter from William Hopkins to George Perley, Canadian High Commissioner, London, requesting assistance for the return of Private Hopkins’s remains to Canada, dated 5 January 1921; letter from George Perley to Fabian Ware enquiring whether the Commission would permit the return of Private Hopkins to Canada, dated 17 January 1921; letter from the IWGC Secretary to W. Hopkins denying his request to repatriate the remains of his son, as it was not the Commission’s policy to do so for any soldiers buried abroad, dated 14 February 1921; handwritten letter from Mrs. W. Hopkins, mother of the casualty, to the IWGC requesting permission to repatriate her son’s remains, dated 21 February 1921; memorandum reporting on the clandestine exhumation of Private Hopkins by Colonel Causton (or Cawston), a demobilised British Officer, and Mr. E.H. Riches, Solicitor, who stated that William Hopkins had received permission from the Commission to do so, undated; letter from C.K. Phillips, IWGC Land and Legal Adviser, to E.H. Riches regarding the involvement of the Belgian Government as the exhumation was considered an offence against Belgian law, dated 12 July 1921; letter from the Department of Militia and Defence, Ottawa, Canada, to Fabian Ware regarding a meeting between William Hopkins and Canadian Prime Minister Meighen in which the repatriation of Private Hopkins was discussed, dated 19 October 1921; copy memorandum reporting on the Hopkins case, dated 14 October 1921; letter from Colonel H.C. Osborne, IWGC Secretary (Canada), to Joseph Pope, Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs, Ottawa, regarding the Private Hopkins case and continued attempts by Mr. W. Hopkins to repatriate his son’s remains, dated 31 March 1924; letter from Colonel H.C. Osborne, IWGC Secretary (Canada), to Arthur Browne, IWGC Secretary, regarding enquiries from a Saskatchewan MP about the removal of British Empire soldiers buried in France and Belgium, as requested by William Hopkins, dated 1 April 1924; Official Report from the House of Commons Debates in Canada discussing the case of Private Hopkins, dated 9 July 1924. |