First world War: three canadian soldiers buried in France

Photo Department of national Defence

QMI agency

Saturday, 19 August, 2017 11:24

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Saturday, 19 August, 2017 11:24

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OTTAWA | Identified a century after their death, three canadian soldiers died during the First world War are reburied in France next week.

Sergeant Harold Wilfred Shaughnessy, of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, has been identified following the discovery of his bones near the village of Vendin-le-Viel, in June 2016, during a mine-clearing operation.

Reporter by trade, he enlisted at Montreal on August 4, 1915. He was killed on the first day of the battle of hill 70, which raged from 15 to 25 August 1917. He was 33 years old.

The other soldier is Reginald Joseph Winfield Johnston, whose remains were found near the village of Vendin-le-Vieil, France. Fairford, Manitoba, he was a member of the 16th Battalion of the canadian expeditionary force. He died on 15 or 16 August 1917, at the age of 22 years, during the battle of the rating of 70.

The burials of the two soldiers will be held next Thursday in the british cemetery Loos, Loos-en-Gohelle, in the Pas-de-Calais, France. Members of their families, as well as representatives of the government of Canada and the canadian armed Forces (CAF) will be present.

On Friday, it will be around sergeant James Alexander Milne to be buried in the cemetery Orchard Dump to Libercourt-en-Gohelle, France. Sergeant Milne had died on April 28, 1917, at the age of 34, during an operation against a German position called the loop of Courrières.

Some 1,300 canadian soldiers were killed during the battle of hill 70 do not have a known grave, according to the ministry of national Defence.