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a British soldier of the Great War identified !!


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I've enjoyed watching many a TV program of trench and battlefield excavations and the discovery and eventual ID'ing of the combatants of the time.   My cousin Graeme, who still lives in my birthplace of Sunderland England recieved this in an Email from the DoD;

 

In November 2014, a set of human remains – those of a British soldier – were discovered in the vicinity of Zonnebeke, Belgium. Found with them was a piece of military insignia – a shoulder title from the Durham Light Infantry. Following an exhumation of this field grave, the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre has been carrying out some very painstaking research in order to try and identify the soldier. 

The starting point was the shoulder title; from this, we know that he served with the Durham Light Infantry. We have trawled through the war diaries of all the different battalions from this regiment for the entire period of the war and managed to exclude them all by virtue of the fact none of them were in action at Zonnebeke until the 2nd Battle of Ypres during April – May 1915. Five territorial battalions fought in the 2nd Battle of Ypres, but it was possible to eliminate four of them as they didn’t march through - or see action at - Zonnebeke during the battle. The one battalion that did was the 1st/7th Battalion, which lost 8 soldiers, killed in action, on 26 April 1915. None of them have a known grave and all are commemorated on the Menin Gate. 

We instructed our DNA contractors to take a sample from the remains, then traced family from each of the soldiers and asked them to provide a DNA sample for comparison against the profile obtained from the remains. The comparator sample for the Edmundson family was provided by Thomas’ second cousin once removed, Norman Edmundson; the comparison proved that they were related through a shared paternal relative and that the remains were those of Thomas Telford Edmundson. Norman is pleased that the remains have been identified, but does not want to come to the service, hence my searching for more family. 

You and Thomas are related through William Edmundson (1803 – 1857), your great, great, great grandfather and Thomas’ great grandfather. William and his wife Ann had 2 sons (Mark and Joseph) and the direct line of descendants for each of them is shown below (although I haven’t included more than one son per generation).

It now falls to me to organise a full burial with military honours for Thomas; this is planned for 14 March 2018, at Perth Cemetery (China Wall), near Ypres in Belgium. It will be a full ceremonial burial and I’m attaching a couple of pictures from other similar services – I hope they’ll interest you. I would be delighted if you and any other members of Thomas’ family would like to have some input into the service and attend on the day . There will be military and local Belgian dignitaries attending, together with standard bearers from the Royal British Legion, a bearer party, chaplain and bugler from The Rifles and myself and a colleague from JCCC. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission will provide a headstone bearing Thomas’ name. Following the ceremony there will be a reception/refreshments. We would also like to send the story/pictures to local newspapers in the Sunderland area.   end quote'

 

This turns out to be my Grampa's second cousin(if I know my hiearchy.which I don't).   I've already planned a  trip to Europe to have a week in the Somme area and lower Belgium.

 

I'm so stoked

 

Cheers, Tony

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“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.”

–from For the Fallen, poem by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943),

published in The Times newspaper on 21st September 1914

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3 hours ago, imatt88 said:

That is amazing.  I lost great great uncles on my Canadian side of the family in WW1 and I have no idea where they were buried.

 

It's nice to have closure, for sure

 

If you have their full legal name you can email the war commission and they will give you information on where the graves are.

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