Nearly a century on from their passing, twenty British soldiers have been reinterred at Loos British cemetery in northern France.
After their remains were discovered in 2010, during construction work north of Arras in France, twenty servicemen have been buried with full military honours in Loos.
Only now of the soldiers was identified, after his identity disc was found, as Private William McAleer from the 7th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. The soldier born on 26 February 1893 was from Leven in Fife. Pte McAleer has no direct descendants, with his immediate family having moved to America. He was represented by a relative of his half-brother, Stephen Macleod.
However the remaining nineteen soldiers could not be identified, and were interred as “Known unto God” in the ceremony. It is known that the dead included a Northumberland Fusilier, six Royal Scots Fusiliers (of various battalions), one servicemen of the York and Lancaster Regiment, and two Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders. However nine of the other men could not be assigned to a regiment.
The 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, who are based in Penicuik, and recently returned from Afghanistan, participated in the interment of the fallen.
Events will be held later in the year to mark 100 years since the start of the First World War.
[Image © Delta23lfb, Flickr]