{"id":92798,"date":"2018-06-13T15:23:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T15:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=c9b99c99214399d1a1ed322572227143"},"modified":"2018-06-13T15:23:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T15:23:00","slug":"news-story-four-unknown-soldiers-killed-during-ww1-are-laid-to-rest-with-full-military-honours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=92798","title":{"rendered":"News story: Four unknown soldiers killed during WW1 are laid to rest with full military honours"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>The 4 soldiers were buried on Wednesday 13 June in France.<\/p>\n<p>One unknown soldier of the Machine Gun Corps (<abbr title=\"Machine Gun Corps\">MGC<\/abbr>) and 3 unknown soldiers of unknown regiments have finally been laid to rest after they were killed during World War 1. The 4 soldiers were buried Wednesday 13 June at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (<abbr title=\"Commonwealth War Graves Commission\">CWGC<\/abbr>) Loos British Cemetery, France.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/75792\/2_Members_of_the_RTR_form_a_Bearer_Party.jpg\" alt=\"Members of the RTR provide a bearer party for their fallen comrade. Crown Copyright. All rights reserved\"><\/div><figcaption>Members of the <abbr title=\"Royal Tank Regiment\">RTR<\/abbr> provide a bearer party for their fallen comrade. Crown Copyright. All rights reserved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The service, organised by the <abbr title=\"Ministry of Defence\">MOD<\/abbr>\u2019s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (<abbr title=\"Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre\">JCCC<\/abbr>), part of Defence Business Services, was conducted by the Reverend Stephen Pratt CF, Chaplain to the Royal Tank Regiment (<abbr title=\"Royal Tank Regiment\">RTR<\/abbr>). The <abbr title=\"Royal Tank Regiment\">RTR<\/abbr> provided both the bearer and firing party for the ceremony.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/75793\/3_Members_of_the_RTR_lay_their_fallen_colleague_to_rest.jpg\" alt=\"Members of the RTR lay their colleague to rest. Crown Copyright. All rights reserved\"><\/div><figcaption>Members of the <abbr title=\"Royal Tank Regiment\">RTR<\/abbr> lay their colleague to rest. Crown Copyright. All rights reserved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Nicola Nash, <abbr title=\"Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre\">JCCC<\/abbr> said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">It\u2019s a great honour to be here today to lay these brave men to rest, who fought so courageously alongside their comrades. Although we have not been able to identify them, they were still buried with the dignity and respect that they deserved.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The remains were found in December 2016 during construction work in the Vendin-le-Vieil area of northern France. Two <abbr title=\"Machine Gun Corps\">MGC<\/abbr> shoulder titles and a cap badge were found along with the soldiers, plus numerous items of British Army kit.<\/p>\n<p>Reverend Stephen Pratt CF said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">It was a great privilege to lead the service for 4 unknown soldiers who sacrifices themselves, that we might have freedom.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The heavy branch of the <abbr title=\"Machine Gun Corps\">MGC<\/abbr> was the first to use tanks in combat during the Battle of the Somme and was subsequently amalgamated into the Tank Corps, later known as the <abbr title=\"Royal Tank Regiment\">RTR<\/abbr>. The <abbr title=\"Royal Tank Regiment\">RTR<\/abbr> is the oldest tank unit in the world and the regiment has been deployed on all major conflicts since the end of World War 2. The <abbr title=\"Royal Tank Regiment\">RTR<\/abbr> recently celebrated their Centenary and are fiercely proud of their history.<\/p>\n<p>Warrant Officer (WO1) Harley Upham, Royal Tank Regiment said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">I am deeply honoured and moved to have been here today. The Machine Gun Corps and Tank Corps is in our <abbr title=\"Deoxyribonucleic\">DNA<\/abbr>. We who are the current custodians of the Regiment and of what came before us, will never forget the sacrifice and immense debt which we all owe to them and especially to all the Officers and Soldiers of the Machine Gun Corps and Royal Tank Regiments who have made this Regiment what it is today.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/75795\/5_Vickers_Machine_Gun__1_.jpg\" alt=\"Vickers Machine Gun from WW1. Crown Copyright. All rights reserved\"><\/div><figcaption>Vickers Machine Gun from WW1. Crown Copyright. All rights reserved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mel Donnelly, <abbr title=\"Commonwealth War Graves Commission\">CWGC<\/abbr> said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Two new headstones, one engraved with \u2018Unknown Soldier of Machine Gun Corps\u2019 and one engraved with 3 \u2018Unknown Soldiers of the Great War\u2019 have been provided by the <abbr title=\"Commonwealth War Graves Commission\">CWGC<\/abbr>, who will now care for their final resting place in perpetuity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/75794\/4_New_Headstones_Now_Marking_The_Soldiers__Final_Resting_Place__1_.jpg\" alt=\"New Headstones provided by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Crown Copyright. All rights reserved\"><\/div><figcaption>New Headstones provided by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Crown Copyright. All rights reserved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four unknown soldiers have finally been laid to rest after they were killed during World War 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92811,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92798\/revisions\/92811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}