Nine British soldiers who lost their lives in World War I will finally be laid to rest today with full military honors

Nine British soldiers who lost their lives in World War I will finally be buried today (Wednesday) more than a century after their deaths.

Fallen service members will receive full military honors as they are buried during a service at Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium.

The nine soldiers, seven of whom have been identified, will be buried alongside the graves of thousands of their comrades who fell in heavy fighting around the town of Ypres.

The seven men served together in the 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, and died within days of each other in the bloody Battle of Passchendaele in October 1917.

Many surviving family members are expected to attend the ceremony to pay their respects to them, as well as the Duke of Kent.

Also in attendance will be members of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, who will honor fallen soldiers with a salvo of weapons.

The seven soldiers identified are:

– Second Lieutenant Leslie Wallace Ablett, born in Manchester and later lived in Streatham, south London. Died at the age of 20.

– 2nd Lieutenant Edward Douglas Bruty, from Dulwich, now south of London. Died at the age of 21.

– Sergeant Thomas Feasby, of Eston, North Yorkshire. Died at the age of 32.

– Lance Corporal Stanley Blakeborough, of Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire. Died at the age of 21.

– Private Harry Miller, born in Cockerton, Co Durham, and later lived in Burton Leonard, North Yorkshire. Died at the age of 28.

– Private Joseph Patrickson MM, of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. Recipient of the Military Medal for Bravery in Combat in October 1917. Died aged 24.

– Private Arnold Sanderson MM, of Darlington, Co Durham. Awarded the Military Medal for his bravery in fighting in October 1917 while working as a runner for officers. Died at the age of 26.

The service takes place three years after the remains of eight of the nine servicemen were discovered in De Reutel in Belgium during civil engineering work, while those of a ninth serviceman were found separately.

Their bodies, like those of so many of their comrades who died on the battlefields of World War I, had been missing for a century.

Extensive research combined with knowledge gleaned from a small number of personal effects found with them allowed experts to identify seven of the nine servicemen.

“War detectives,” such as the Defense Ministry’s Joint Center for Wounded and Compassion (JCCC) team, were able to track down surviving family members to complete identification with DNA testing.

The eighth victim, closely related to the seven named soldiers, could not be identified by name but will be honored as “unknown soldier of the Northumberland Fusiliers”.

The last soldier will be buried as an “unknown soldier of the Great War”.

The Ypres Salient was formed in October and November 1914, when a small British expeditionary force managed to secure the town before the onset of winter, pushing back German forces.

Tyne Cot Cemetery is managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and is the largest cemetery in the world for Commonwealth forces in any war. It contains the remains of nearly 12,000 soldiers, many of whom are unidentified.

It is located near Ypres and Passchendaele, where intensive fighting on the Western Front has seen tens of thousands of soldiers lose their lives, many of whom have never been found.

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