LGC Forensics
Overview
LGC is the largest privately owned forensic science service
provider in the UK. Through LGC Forensics, a major division of LGC,
we serve the police and crime enforcement agencies and we also have
an increasing number of private sector clients.
We offer a comprehensive range of forensic
science services, based
on an extensive rangeof techniques. Our scientists use the latest
innovations - often
developed in-house - to establish the facts of cases under
investigation.
With a team of over 500 staff in the UK, LGC
Forensics delivers established and meticulously executed forensic
science either at the crime scene or in one of our eight UK laboratories at: Teddington,
(Middlesex); Bromsgrove (Worcestershire); Culham (Oxfordshire); St.
Neots (Cambridgeshire); Risley and Runcorn (Cheshire); Tamworth,
(Staffordshire); and Leeds (West Yorkshire).
From our two bases in Germany (Berlin
and Cologne), LGC Forensics delivers
state-of-the-art DNA familial testing services throughout Europe,
supported by our other forensic science disciplines in the UK. LGC
Forensics has access to a wide range of other specialist teams
across the LGC Group including a close working relationship with
the largest group of Home Office Pathologists, Forensic Pathway
Services and a unique Victim Identificatio and Mass Fatalities
Team.
LGC’s substantial investment in analytical
instrumentation and R&D brings significant benefits to the
range of novel investigation techniques available to LGC
Forensics.
DNA project for Fromelles
LGC Forensics is involved in a programme to help identify the
soldiers who fell at the Battle of Fromelles in northern France on
19 July 1916.
Our dedicated team of specialist DNA forensic scientists is
attempting to extract viable DNA samples from the remains of these
soldiers and we will remain involved in the project until its
completion. We are now in the process of collating the details of
potential relatives in an attempt to gain some positive
identification.
Background
In May 2006, after several years of painstaking research and
investigation, a number of burial pits dating from the First World
War were identified at Pheasant Wood, near Fromelles, in northern
France. In May 2009 careful excavation of the pits was started by
archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology, working with LGC Forensics’
specialist DNA team, whose role it was to take appropriate DNA
samples. By early September, they had removed the remains of 250
British and Australian soldiers, buried behind German lines after
the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916.
The soldiers were members of the 5th Australian division and the
British 61st division infantry. The attack they launched was
intended to draw German troops away from the Somme offensive, which
was taking place further south. The consequences of that attack at
Fromelles would prove disastrous.
The British and Australian Governments asked the Commonwealth
War Graves Commission to oversee the operation and to recover the
remains and create a new military cemetery at Fromelles for their
reburial. With the recovery stage of the project now complete,
archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology and DNA specialists from LGC
Forensics are examining remains in an effort to identify the
soldiers who will be reinterred in February 2010.
Announcements
LGC is currently recruiting forensic
scientists at all levels. View all current
vacancies.
Join the LGC Forensics Project
Register
We are looking for forensics professionals
in the UK and throughout the world who can help us with short- and
long-term projects – follow the link to find
out more or to sign up.