 When the remains of a Commonwealth soldier from the First or Second World War is discovered the Commission is notified and a Commission burial officer tries to collect any associated artifacts that may help in identify the remains . The details are then registered and archived at the Commission 's <unk> the collection of evidence can include artifacts with the remains , anthropological data and DNA . The archival records of the commission are open to the public to permit individuals to conduct their own research . Investigation of archival records by members of the public periodically result in the identification of previously buried casualties . In December 2013 , it was discovered that Second Lieutenant Philip Frederick Cormack , who was previously commemorated on the Arras Flying Services Memorial , had in fact been buried in a French military cemetery in <unk> , East @-@ Flanders in Belgium . Sergeant Leonard Maidment was identified in 2013 after a visitor to <unk> British Cemetery discovered a headstone of an unknown sergeant with the Hampshire Regiment killed on 20 July 1918 and was subsequently able to show that only one sergeant from that regiment had been killed in France on that date . 
