HC Deb 25 July 1944 vol 402 cc601-2W
Lord Irwin

asked the Secretary of State for War the average time taken after a soldier has become a casualty in Italy and France respectively, before his next of kin are informed.

Sir J. Grigg

The time taken between the occurrence of a casualty in Italy and the information reaching the next-of-kin is usually about 14 days. For the first few weeks the notifications have taken nearly as long from Normandy, but this figure is being reduced as communications improve and the abnormal conditions, arising from the nature of the operations, are overcome. This figure covers all types of casualty; priority is given to cases of death and of serious and dangerous illness. In the case of a man wounded in Normandy who is sent to a hospital in this country the casualty is reported after a very much shorter space of time.