SOLDIER’S FAREWELL
Hundreds turn out at cemetery to pay their respects Fusilier died alongside two Australian comrades
The coffin of an unknown British soldier arrives at Tyne Cot Cemetery near Ypres, Belgium, for a commemoration and burial service 101 years after he was killed at the Battle of Passchendaele. The unknown man served in the Lancashire Fusiliers.
HIS WAS the ultimate sacrifice, although it is a heart-breaking story that has been lost with the passing of time.
And more than a century on since he lost his life in the First World War, an unidentified British soldier was finally laid to rest yesterday with full military honours in front of hundreds of people who turned out to pay their respects.
The body of the unknown man, who served in the Lancashire Fusiliers regiment, was buried alongside two Australian soldiers yesterday afternoon in Ypres, Belgium.
A ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Tyne Cot Cemetery was attended by dignitaries, representatives from the regiment and crowds of members of the public.
The British soldier’s coffin was draped in a Union flag with a wreath of poppies laid on top alongside a belt and hat of the regiment. After hymns and prayers, readings were given by dignitaries before a firing salute by the Royal Regiment and the Australian Army as the coffins were interred. Research suggests the British soldier may have been killed on October 9, 1917, when he was aged between 23 and 29 during the Battle of Passchendaele, which took place between July and November 1917. The bodies of the three comrades were found lying sideby-side in what is thought to be a shell hole in May 2016 when water works were carried out on Vijfwegestraat, a road near the cemetery. A pencil engraved with the name of Eagley Cricket Club, near Bolton, was found next to the British soldier alongside epaulettes of the regiment, service buttons, boots, fragments of a winter coat and a pipe.
Each year, the remains of about 40 British soldiers who died in the Great War are found on battlefields in Europe and the Ministry of Defence’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) – which is based at the cemetery and organised the ceremony – tries to identify them.
Tracey Bowers, of the JCCC, said the pencil was a “unique” find which alongside the shoulder titles suggested his links to Lancashire. But despite extensive investigations looking into the history of the regiment, battalion war diaries, cricket club records and DNA, his identity has never been confirmed.
Tests were carried out to find out if a missing soldier who lived near the cricket club was a match, but this proved unsuccessful.
Ms Bowers said: “With the centenary of the end of the First World War coming up it is particularly poignant. But also it is only right and proper that we try and give these brave soldiers their name on their headstone.”
Ms Bowers said there was a “wide pool” of people to research as on the day in question more than 200 Lancashire Fusiliers were killed who still have no known grave.
She added: “We will continue with our research. If we can, we will go to families and take DNA and hopefully identify him.”
Research indicated the regiment had been posted to the area during what is known as the Third Battle of Ypres.
The battle lasted 105 days and capturing the village of Passchendaele, now called Passendale, came at the cost of an estimated 500,000 casualties. The bodies of 42,000 troops were never found.
The Lancashire Fusiliers existed from 1688 to 1968 before amalgamating with others to form what is now the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The regiment ended the First World War with 18 Victoria Crosses, more than any other in the British Army.
It is only right and proper that we give these soldiers their name. Tracey Bowers of the MoD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre.