Three unknown soldiers associated with the Battle of Hill 70 will be laid to rest with military honours at Loos British Cemetery, Loos-en-Gohelle, France, at the end of June. Two of the soldiers will be buried as Unknown Soldiers of the Great War, as confirmation that they are Canadian could not be obtained. The third soldier will be buried as an Unknown Canadian Soldier from the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles.
The remains of the three soldiers were discovered during construction projects near Lens, France, in 2011 and 2017. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission was notified, and took possession of the remains and associated artefacts. The cases were subsequently investigated by the Canadian Armed Forces' Casualty Identification Program and closed in November 2019. Maternal and paternal DNA profiles have been obtained from these sets of remains with the hope of future identification.
Days after the ceremony for the unknown soldiers, Private John Lambert will be buried by his unit, The Royal Newfoundland Regiment, at New Irish Farm Cemetery in West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, in a joint ceremony with the United Kingdom. Private Lambert died at the age of 17 in August 1917 at the Battle of Langemarck. His remains were discovered in 2016, and his identification was announced by the Department of National Defence in December 2020.
Private Lambert will be buried alongside two unknown British soldiers of unknown regiments, an unknown British soldier of the Royal Inniskilling Regiment, an unknown British soldier of the Hampshire Regiment, an unknown British soldier of the Royal Fusiliers, and an unknown German soldier. Private Lambert's family and government representatives will be in attendance.
The public is welcome to attend both ceremonies.
Details
- The burials of the three unknown soldiers will take place at 2:00 p.m. Central European Summer Time (CEST) on June 27, 2022 at Loos British Cemetery, Loos-en-Gohelle in France.
- The burial of Private John Lambert, the unknown British soldiers and the unknown German soldier will take place at 11 a.m. Central European Summer Time (CEST) on June 30, 2022 at New Irish Farm Cemetery, near Ypres in Belgium. The public is asked to arrive no later than 10:30 a.m. and to understand that space may be limited.
