We still remember them: First World War British soldiers are finally laid rest

[Neil]

By Peter Allen and Harriet Arkell
 

Four British soldiers killed in action during the First World War were today finally being buried with full military honours in northern France.

The ceremony at the Ecoust-Saint-Mein cemetery, attended by Prince Michael of Kent, comes almost 100 years to the day since they lost their lives during the Battle of Arras.

Lieutenant John Harold Pritchard and Private Christopher Douglas Elphick, and two as yet unidentified British solders, died in a German offensive in May 1917, and their remains lay in a field near Arras until being discovered in 2009, by a French farmer clearing his land.
 
Farmer Didier Guerle, centre, stands with writer Philippe Duhamel, right, and historian Moise Dilly, left, near a British flag marking the spot where they found the soldiers' remains

The soldiers were killed in the second battle of Bullecourt on the Hindenburg Line in the early hours of May 15, 1917.

The remains of their bodies lay undiscovered until French farmer Didier Guerle was using a metal detector to clear his fields of wartime ammunition four years ago.

Mr Guerle, who farms land at Bullecourt, had always been told by his father 'never to plough the bottom end of the north field'.  But he wanted to clear the land, and was using a metal detector with the help of his archaeologist friend Moise Dilly when he came across human remains.

Lt Pritchard, who was 31 when he died, was identified by a silver identity bracelet, and Elphick, 28, by a signet ring carrying his initials.

Both were in the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) and were among the first British soldiers to mobilise to France at the start of the war in 1914.

Lt Pritchard, who survived the Battle of the Somme, was the eldest of seven children and a former chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, who had sung at state occasions including royal weddings.


 
Historian Moise Dilly runs a metal detector over the spot in the field in Bullecourt, northern France, where the British soldiers' remains lay

 
Pte Elphick, a London insurance clerk, joined up in 1915, three months after the birth of his son, Ronald Douglas, who went on to serve in the HAC during the Second World War.
Mr Douglas's sons, Chris and Martin Elphick, were due to attend today’s ceremony, while the Pritchard family were to be represented by his nephew Harold Shell and great nieces Janet Shell and Jennifer Sutton.
Prince Michael of Kent, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, is Royal Honorary Colonel of the HAC.

The remains of two other soldiers were discovered but have yet to be identified.  DNA samples have been taken from them, and they were to be interred as ‘HAC soldiers known unto God.’

 
Mr Guerle also found the shell of a World War One gas bomb near the remains of the British soldiers

 
The French farmer was clearing his fields of old ammunition with a metal detector when he found the human remains

THE HINDENBURG LINE AND THE BATTLE OF BULLECOURT
The Hindenburg Line (Siegfriedstellung) was a German defensive position built during the winter of 1916-1917 from Arras to Laffaux.
The last and strongest of the German army's defence lines, it consisted of three well-defended trench systems.
 
This shows the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line south of Arras on 25th April 1917
May 1917 saw the second Battle of Bullecourt, a continuation of the British spring offensive north and south of Arras that aimed to support a major French attack further south.
The French attacked on 15 April 1917 but when the attack failed, the British and French leaders agreed to continue the operation, which was a joint British and Australian attack on the Hindenburg Line around Bullecourt.
The attack began in the early hours of 3 May 1917, and the Australians in particular suffered heavy casualties as a result of machine gun fire over the next few days.
On 6 May the Germans launched their sixth counter-attack but an astonishing display of bravery in which Corporal George Julian Howell ran along the top of the trenches bombarding the enemy with hand grenades pushed the Germans back. (Cpl Howell later received the Victoria Cross in person from King George V for his bravery).
The following day, the British seized part of Bullecourt, and on 15 May the Germans launched a final counter-attack, in which the British soldiers buried today are believed to have died.
The Australians fought the counter-attack off, and by 17 May all the ruins of Bullecourt were in Allied hands.
But the victory came at great cost, particularly to the Australians who were said to have lost more than 7,000 men for a 'small, tactically useless, village'.