When you drive around northern France you cannot help but notice the dozens and dozens of military cemeteries, some large, some tiny, whose rows of identical white headstones surrounded by impeccably kept lawns and well-manicured flower-beds mark the final resting places of the tens of thousands who gave their lives in Word War I.
Amongst the bigger ones is the 11,100m2 cemetery which contains 2,800 tombs in the small town of Loos-en-Gohelle, just NW of Lens. A ferocious battle was fought here from 25 Sept-8 Oct. 1915 in which 59,247 men lost their lives trying to take Hill 70, including Rudyard Kipling’s only son, 18-yr old John (although he is not buried here but at St. Mary’s Advanced Dressing Station Cemetery in Haisnes, just 3.8 kms north of Loos).
But when 120 identifiable remains were found by the mine clearance company preparing the terrain just over Hill 70 where the new Lens hospital is being built, it became clear the existing military cemetery was too small to be able to bury them alongside their comrades-in-arms. So, for only the second time since the end of WWII, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), which maintains war graves around the world for the governments of Australia, Britain, Canada, India, New-Zealand and South Africa, decided to open a second cemetery adjacent to the original one.
The formal opening of the Loos British Cemetery Extension with the full military burial of the remains of two unknown Scottish soldiers took place on 26th September attended by HRH The Princess Royal, president of the CWGC, together with Dame Menna Rawlings, British ambassador to France, Geoffrey Mathon, mayor of Loos-en-Gohelle, Jacques Billant, prefect of the Pas-de-Calais and other officials.
The work of the CWGC
When human remains on these battle-scarred territories are found, work is immediately stopped and the UK’s Ministry of Defence Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) is contacted. The five members of the team, known more familiarly as “war detectives”, then get to work. One of them, Alexia Clark, told me how they go about identifying remains.
“The first thing is that the precise location and position of the remains is recorded and if there is any textile, or buttons, or insignia on or around the remains these are taken to be examined. Footwear is usually in good condition and enables us immediately to know whether we’re dealing with an officer or a soldier because the officers had better boots!”
Bone samples are taken by forensic experts sub-contracted to the MOD who try and extract DNA to help with identification. “Sometimes the forensic scientists are able to tell us that a particular casualty had a disease or had suffered previous injuries and these details are precious in helping us to identify the person with the help of historical military records, maps and service records, although 75 percent of WWI service records were destroyed in WWII which makes our life a little difficult.”
She added that “if we’re able to identify the body, our next task is to find family, however distantly related. We use genealogical tools such as Ancestry, obituaries, newspaper articles, anything that might help us. When we’ve found family we then contact them either by e-mail or letter, the latter having the advantage that we use headed note paper whilst with just the former they may think we’re a scam! Sometimes families didn’t even know the deceased existed but they’re almost always delighted to hear from us and make the effort to come to the re-burial ceremony.”
Occasionally when two bodies are found very close together it’s not always possible to clearly identify which bones belong to whom or even to separate the bodies. “In that case they’re buried together,” Alexia Clark explained “and if they’ve been identified then there is one grave with two headstones, otherwise there’s just the one headstone.”
Sometimes, as was the case with Rudyard Kipling’s son, a previously unknown soldier is identified many decades after dying. “In these cases there’s a re-dedication ceremony with a padre and a bugler,” she said.
Why are so many in Loos unknown?
Tracey Bower, head of commemoration with the JCCC, told me that “the soil where these 120 remains were found is quite contaminated by mining and other industrial activities so no exploitable DNA was found in the remains which is why we’ve not been able to identify the individuals.”
However the team was able to establish that thus far 48 separate sets of remains have been found on the hospital construction site and the many Scottish Regimental artefacts found, including kilt pins, regimental buttons and shoulder titles, indicated with certainty that these casualties were Scottish even if the individuals could not be accurately identified.
This is why the headstones of the two unknown soldiers, like those of the 46 others already buried privately earlier this summer in the new extension and 2,000 of the 2,800 in the adjacent cemetery, have no names but are engraved simply with “Known Unto God” and, in cases where their regiment is known, that is also inscribed.
One of the two unknown soldiers was identified by clothing as a Black Watch soldier and so it was soldiers of 3 Scots Black Watch Battalion who carried the caskets. The religious service was conducted by Reverend David Anderson CF, the Senior Chaplain of HQ 51 Infantry Brigade.
Work is on-going by both British and Canadian forensic experts to identify the other 72 British and Canadian casualties found so far who will also be buried with military honours in the new cemetery.
The cemetery extension
As work continues on the hospital and begins on the 185km long Canal Seine-Nord Europe from Compiègne to Aubencheul-au-Bac it is expected that up to 1,000 more bodies will be found.
Steve Arnold, the CWGC horticultural manager for Western Europe, told me that Loos-en-Gohelle was identified as an appropriate cemetery to be extended, because the 4,630 m2 field between the cemetery and the Canadian Memorial on Hill 70 belonged to the municipality and was big enough for 1,200 tombs. It nevertheless took three years to prepare the field which had to be mine-cleared.
In comparison, the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery, west of Lille, the first new Commonwealth military cemetery to be built since WWII which opened in July 2010, has space for just 250 graves.
Whilst awaiting the arrival of HRH Princess Anne I spoke to François Maréchal, wearing the red/white/blue sash of deputy mayor in charge of urbanism for Loos, who explained that the town had sold the field to the French Defence Ministry which, in turn, has conceded it in perpetuity to the CWGC. Stephan Naji, head of the CWGC’s recovery unit, specified with a laugh that “contrary to a popular myth, all our cemeteries remain French territory so you can’t seek refuge in them if you’re trying to escape French law!”
Three hundred gardeners work full time for the CWGC in France alone (about 800 worldwide) Steve Arnold told me. Princess Anne was the day’s occasional gardener when she ceremoniously “planted” a tree in the new cemetery. Although the CWGC cemeteries have a single design brief they can make suggestions to modify the plants to local soil and weather conditions “which may be accepted by the CWGC,” he said. François Maréchal remarked that in order to meet the town’s “no pesticides, no herbicides” rule for its public spaces, the CWGC has agreed that the new cemetery will have four large squares planted as flower meadows “which offer greater bio-diversity than just green lawns,” he quipped.
The ceremony
Security was very tight with streets closed off, an overhead drone scanning the area, sniffer dogs and armed gendarmes. The latter appeared to be observing their Scottish counterparts in full Highland dress somewhat enviously!
Given that space was limited to 400 people, a draw had been organised to enable at least 100 of the 6,789 Loosois and Loosoises to attend the solemn ceremony and get a rare, close-up peek of a senior member of the British Royal Family. Amongst the others at the ceremony were members of the Loos-en-Gohelle town council an of the Lens-Liévin agglomeration together with local members of parliament and secondary-school children.
As a fragment of kilt textile found with one of the bodies identified the soldier as being with the Black Watch, it was soldiers of the 3 Scots Black Watch Battalion who stood vigil by the coffins and then carried them to their final resting place and lowered them into the tomb.
Princess Anne read a psalm and Dame Menna Rawlings a poem during the ceremony which ended with a three-volley salute symbolizing respect and honour for the deceased by soldiers of the 2 Scots Royal Highland Fusiliers. Their rifle shots brought some leaves down from the lime-tree they were standing under!
A bugler then played the Last Post using a bugle that had clearly caught a cough in the early morning drizzle which had given way to clear sunshine by the time the ceremony began at 11:20. The “Loch Aber No More” Black Watch lament was then played by a soldier who marched slowly away across the old cemetery, the sounds of the bagpipe fading slowly away to complete silence. Goosebump, emotional moment as is fitting for these young men buried 109 years after they died.
By Christina McKenzie, a Franco-British journalist who writes in both English and French. Married to a Frenchman, she settled 30 years ago near Fontainebleau.
