New Brunswick soldier killed in WWI battle in France identified, to be laid to rest

More than a century after losing his life on a battlefield in France, a Canadian man who left a New Brunswick farm to fight in the First World War will be laid to rest.

The Canadian Armed Forces has confirmed that remains found in 2016 in France belong to Private John Henry Thomas.

Jack, as he was known, was born on Jan. 25, 1889 in Chewale, South Wales in the UK, but grew up in Birch Ridge, N.B., and eventually became a farmer.

READ MORE: The Battle of Hill 70 — Canada’s forgotten Vimy Ridge

In April 1916, he enlisted in Saint John and shipped off to Liverpool three months later.

By April 20, 1917, Thomas was assigned to the 26th Canadian Infantry Battalion (New Brunswick), CEF, and was part of the Battle of Hill 70 that August.

It’s estimated 2,100 Canadians died in that battle and more than 1,300 still have no known grave.

WATCH: The Battle of Hill 70: Canada’s forgotten Vimy Ridge

On Aug. 19, 2017, he was killed in action while his battalion was holding its forward position against German counter-attacks. Private Thomas was 28.

His name was engraved that following year on the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, but he had no known grave.

That is, not until nearly 100 years later, in August 2016, when a construction project on the grounds of a plastic manufacturer in Lens, France, uncovered the remains of three soldiers.

Along with the skeletal remains, some artifacts, including a 26th Canadian Infantry Battallion (New Brunswick) collar badge, were found.

It would take months of analysis — using historical, genealogical, anthropological, archaeological and DNA analysis — to identify one set of remains as Private Thomas.

“One hundred years after the end of the First World War, we honour and remember Private Thomas. We will never forget his sacrifice, or those of the nearly 61,000 brave Canadians who gave their lives in the First World War so that all of us might live in peace and security,” said Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in a news release.

Thomas will be buried by his regiment, in the presence of family and representatives from the Canadian government, at the Commonwealth War Grave Commission’s Loos British Cemetery outside Loos-en-Gohelle in France on Aug. 23.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to support Private Thomas’s family during this time. We will lay him to rest with the honour he and his family deserve. While a century has passed, time has not lessened our gratitude to Private Thomas. May he, and those who fell with him, never be forgotten,” said Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O’Regan in a news release.

Three other Canadian soldiers who also died in the Battle of Hill 70 will also be buried that day.

Last week, the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces confirmed that remains found over the course of a year in 2010 near the village of Vendin-le-Vieil in northern France belonged to Private William Del Donegan, Private Henry Edmonds Priddle and Sergeant Archibald Wilson.

All three soldiers were from Manitoba and enlisted in Winnipeg.