The name of our man - with pleasure, provided it is just for members of this List.    Charles Henry Croasdaile BOWEN. Born New Zealand 1882. Always known to his mother and sisters as Henry. We know a lot about him in general (altho a few civilian gaps, perhaps to be pursued in other lists in due course).   It is really just the detailed war service that we are looking for, at the moment. He usually used the full 3 initials, but the Dec 1918 newspaper report in NZ for his Order of British Empire medal strangely only shows Henry C rather than CHC.  This report - see NZ Past Papers online - was presumably provided by his family and originated directly from him.  It says he was R.E. and constructing railways for the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force. Technically the medal was an MBE, but he always referred to it in later life as an OBE.    I hope I have snipped excess stuff correctly! Harriet > We are trying to identify anything (!) more specific about our man's WWI   > service/unit, so that we can start to look for War Diaries.  But   > currently baffled by holes and contradictions in the available data. > Or - new idea - might all this ambiguity and vagueness actually suggest   > Military Intelligence or other covert activity? Christmas is over, Bah Humbug ...  Even Scrooge would be happy to do some elementary snipping of the message  being responded to in the interests of making the list archive less  cluttered and easier to work with. Happy New Year, Malcolm (list-admin)