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Last resting place for a forgotten warrior
19 October 2011
http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/edinburgh-east-fife/last_resting_place_for_a_forgotten_warrior_1_1919469
HE FELL six weeks before the carnage of the Great War came to an end, and for close to a century the whereabouts of his grave remained a mystery.
But now, a long-forgotten Scottish soldier who perished in one of the last battles of the First World War is to be buried with full military honours.
Private Alexander Johnston died in the autumn of 1918 while fighting in northern France. He was just 33, yet his family was left without a body.
Decades later, his Scots relatives are preparing to travel to France to attend his military funeral, among them a great-nephew from Airdrie, who told The Scotsman he was “humbled” by the work of those who painstakingly identified the remains.
The remarkable 93-year journey towards closure for the Johnstons began in 2008, when human remains were discovered at a construction site in Raillencourt Saint-Olle, near where the Coatbridge-born soldier fell.
After extensive genealogical research and DNA testing, they were confirmed this year as those of Pte Johnston.
The serviceman was born in 1885 and emigrated in his late twenties to Hamilton, Ontario, in Canada. In January 1918, he joined the 78th Battalion (Winnipeg Grenadiers), Canadian Expeditionary Force, and within nine months he was fighting at the Battle of the Canal du Nord.
On 29 September, the battalion was pushing through a heavily guarded stretch of the Hindenberg Line and lost 58 men, among them Pte Johnston.
The story of the childless bachelor’s death was passed down generations of his relatives.
“I seem to remember around 50 years ago, an aunt showing me old sepia pictures and telling me about Alex who was killed in the war,” recalled Willie Johnston.
Mr Johnston, 64, whose grandfather was a brother of the young private, was at home in May last year when he received a call. He explained: “It was an undertaker asking if I’d be willing to speak to a genealogist from Thunder Bay, Ontario. She had been looking for relatives in Scotland and came across my father’s name.”
A year passed without further correspondence, and the retired computer consultant presumed the body was that of another soldier. Then in June, he received an e-mail from Canada’s department of national defence confirming it was his great-uncle.
“It’s an amazing story,” Mr Johnston said. “I find it really humbling that people have gone to the trouble they have to identify his body.”
Along with his sister, Jean Strachan, 60, and her husband, Eric, Mr Johnston will set off this evening for France where, on Tuesday in Sailly-lez-Cambrai, they will see the soldier laid to rest in a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery.
They will be joined by another great-nephew, Don Gregory, who provided a DNA sample to researchers, and his daughter, Ann Gregory, a bugler, who will play the Last Post.
Mr Johnson is pleased that Pte Johnston’s relatives from both sides of the Atlantic are coming together to pay tribute.
“People were close 20 to 30 years ago, but that generation died and things drifted apart,” he said. “This has brought us back together again.”
19 October 2011
http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/edinburgh-east-fife/last_resting_place_for_a_forgotten_warrior_1_1919469
HE FELL six weeks before the carnage of the Great War came to an end, and for close to a century the whereabouts of his grave remained a mystery.
But now, a long-forgotten Scottish soldier who perished in one of the last battles of the First World War is to be buried with full military honours.
Private Alexander Johnston died in the autumn of 1918 while fighting in northern France. He was just 33, yet his family was left without a body.
Decades later, his Scots relatives are preparing to travel to France to attend his military funeral, among them a great-nephew from Airdrie, who told The Scotsman he was “humbled” by the work of those who painstakingly identified the remains.
The remarkable 93-year journey towards closure for the Johnstons began in 2008, when human remains were discovered at a construction site in Raillencourt Saint-Olle, near where the Coatbridge-born soldier fell.
After extensive genealogical research and DNA testing, they were confirmed this year as those of Pte Johnston.
The serviceman was born in 1885 and emigrated in his late twenties to Hamilton, Ontario, in Canada. In January 1918, he joined the 78th Battalion (Winnipeg Grenadiers), Canadian Expeditionary Force, and within nine months he was fighting at the Battle of the Canal du Nord.
On 29 September, the battalion was pushing through a heavily guarded stretch of the Hindenberg Line and lost 58 men, among them Pte Johnston.
The story of the childless bachelor’s death was passed down generations of his relatives.
“I seem to remember around 50 years ago, an aunt showing me old sepia pictures and telling me about Alex who was killed in the war,” recalled Willie Johnston.
Mr Johnston, 64, whose grandfather was a brother of the young private, was at home in May last year when he received a call. He explained: “It was an undertaker asking if I’d be willing to speak to a genealogist from Thunder Bay, Ontario. She had been looking for relatives in Scotland and came across my father’s name.”
A year passed without further correspondence, and the retired computer consultant presumed the body was that of another soldier. Then in June, he received an e-mail from Canada’s department of national defence confirming it was his great-uncle.
“It’s an amazing story,” Mr Johnston said. “I find it really humbling that people have gone to the trouble they have to identify his body.”
Along with his sister, Jean Strachan, 60, and her husband, Eric, Mr Johnston will set off this evening for France where, on Tuesday in Sailly-lez-Cambrai, they will see the soldier laid to rest in a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery.
They will be joined by another great-nephew, Don Gregory, who provided a DNA sample to researchers, and his daughter, Ann Gregory, a bugler, who will play the Last Post.
Mr Johnson is pleased that Pte Johnston’s relatives from both sides of the Atlantic are coming together to pay tribute.
“People were close 20 to 30 years ago, but that generation died and things drifted apart,” he said. “This has brought us back together again.”
