Identity theft during WWI

[rei17]

Okay, so this is highly specific and I'm having a hard time googling it (seriously, somebody up there is going to think I'm planning identity theft by now, for how often I googled "false identity during wwi", "soldiers swapping identity", "mistaken identity" "passport during WWI" and so on). My question is: How hard or easy would it have been for

Comments

[ami_ven]

As a generally un-knowledgeable reader, I'd say this was certainly plausible, depending on the rest of the story. The official documentation / Army records seem easy enough to mix up in a war, but I agree with the others who say that the personal stuff would be trickier. But if your conman, as one of the potential heirs, is a relative of the actual nephew, it would be completely believable that they'd look enough alike (especially if he'd been wounded in the face/head) and that the conman would know enough about the family to impersonate the nephew.

TL;DR - if the story is written right, I'd believe it was fairly easy.

[rei17]

Hi there! Thanks for the answer!
The personal stuff is not the problem. :)
He impersonates a close friend who died in the war, so he knows a lot about him and his family and he knows that his parents died and that the friend had been estranged from the rest of the family for a long time.
So that's not a problem, because most relatives who remember him have seen him a long time ago when he was a kid. Also there is a passing resemblance (height, hair and eye color are fairly similar, etc.), certainly enough to fool people who haven't seen you in twenty years.

[ningloreth]

The case of Percy Toplis might provide you with some ideas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Toplis.

He seems to have been a pretty unsavoury character, but he was able to pose as an officer whilst on leave.

The BBC made a controversial TV series about him, starring Paul McGann, called The Monocled Mutineer, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monocled_Mutineer

It was based on a book of the same name by William Allison and John Fairley.

[rei17]

Oooh thank you, that is certainly interesting. My guy is not that terrible, but it's definitly inspiration. ;)

[orange_fell]

If you're looking for more inspiration, there's the story of Martin Guerre (in 16th c France, an impostor took over Martin's entire life, believing him to be dead in battle. People starting doubting him, there was a trial, and the real Martin Guerre came back home in the middle of it.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Guerre

A case of switched dog tags and identity theft (in the Korean War) is also a key part of the backstory of the show Mad Men.

[ffutures]

I'm pretty sure they were not issued with passports - they would have had a pay book, which had to be presented when they were paid, and the identity tags others have mentioned, but that was about it. Googling this shows that it was a small brown-covered book:

As part of their official documents, all soldiers serving in the Great War were issued with a Pay Book.
This was a valuable document which was proof of identification both as a battlefield casualty and when receiving pay.
The pay book was to be carried at all times in the top right tunic pocket & to be produced on request for examination by an Officer or a Regimental Policeman.
The book was to be filled out by the soldier giving the following information:

Regimental Number
Date of enlistments
Ranks
Awards
Skill at arms
Charges
Sick records
Record of pay
Next of kin
Will

http://www.greatwarmemoriesmk.co.uk/a-soldiers-pay-book.html

[roofshadow]

The BBC Father Brown mystery series had an episode "The Truth in the Wine" that had a man posing as a colonel who had switched identities (spoilers, I guess). It was supposed to have happened in 1945 and like your character he looked similar enough and was a good enough friend he could carry on the charade. In that case the dying man wanted his legacy carried on so may have helped in the mission but it wasn't presented as a very difficult task.