Cornish soldier killed during World War 1 is finally laid to rest
Private (Pte) Arthur Burt who served with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, has finally been laid to rest after he was killed during World War 1. Private Burt was buried last week (Wednesday 10 April) during a moving ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Guards’ Cemetery, Lesboeufs, on the Somme in France.
Pte Burt was killed on 16 September 1916, during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, which was part of the Battle of the Somme. He was found with several artefacts including a disc that was engraved with “Pte. A. Burt, 13201, 7th D.C.L.I.”. Following this discovery, the JCCC were then able to trace the nephew of Pte Burt, Mr Philip Lean, who provided a DNA sample which confirmed the identity of Pte Burt after more than a century.
Private Burt’s family said:
"Our lad from Mevagissey was afforded an amazing military send off. Being able to be there as a family was really special and it was a privilege to attend."
Answers
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
George Carlin
Anybody know offhand what, if any, active search measures are ongoing for human remains, or just active archaeology that's prepared to find them? These stories typically seem to involve some form of unrelated construction that randomly turns up a skeleton. I can't imagine what it must be like to be an earth-moving contractor in that region - placing your bids, hiring the subcontractors, scheduling the time around the weather, and BAM - another war grave. The honored dead come first and rightly so, but the practical side of dealing with it has to be an interesting study.
The statistic thrown out about the Duoamont Ossuary is that about 300,000 French and Germans died at Verdun, and that memorial claims to house the bones of 130,000 unidentified troops. That over a third of the fatalities are unidentified says about all you need to know about the conditions of that conflict or trying to clean up after it. Ugh!
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee