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Lasting memorial for Private Ernest
A Wellingborough soldier who died in the First World War could soon get a permanent memorial after remains of 250 soldiers were reburied in France.
The bodies were discovered last year in Pheasant Wood in the village of Fromelles, northern France, and one of them is likely to be that of 20-year-old Private Ernest Arthur Percy Clarke, who died in action on July 19, 1916.
Attempts are now under way to identify the soldiers' remains and work on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's new Fromelles Cemetery is due to be finished by July.
Headstone supports are in place, ready for the appropriate headstones to be matched to the remains.
A spokesman for the war graves commission said: "A joint British/Australian Identification Board is now considering evidence in an attempt to identify the 250 soldiers.
"The board will consider a variety of types of evidence, including anthropological, archaeological, historical and DNA information.
"After the identification board has made its deliberations, families of identified soldiers will be contacted by the Australian Army or United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. This will be initially by phone and then by a follow-up letter."
He said that families of soldiers who are not identified will be invited to continue to take part in the project over the next four years, in the event that their soldier may be identified in the future.
Pte Clarke served in the 2nd/1st Bucks Battalion of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry and his family lived at Holly Buildings in Jackson's Lane, Wellingborough.
Norman Woods MBE, chairman of the Wellingborough branch of the Royal British Legion, said that if Pte Clarke was identified, they would add his name to the war memorial in the town and they would look to hold a church service in his memory.
He said: "We must remember all these soldiers.
"As a Wellingborough man he was serving his country and he should never be forgotten.
"We need to keep the Poppy Appeal for reasons such as this. They should all get gravestones."
The new cemetery in Fromelles will be dedicated at a special ceremony on Monday, July 19.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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