Tag: Paschendaele

They fell at Paschendaele: Three Great War soldiers buried in Belgium

More than a century after his death, Private (Pte) William James Meager, a 38 year old soldier from Bloomsbury in London, has finally been laid to rest with full military honours alongside two other unknown British soldiers.

The service, organised by the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC), also known as the ‘MOD War Detectives’, was held at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC) Poelcapelle British Cemetery, Belgium yesterday (27 September, ‘23).

The remains were discovered in August 2019 during a commercial archaeological dig, which was being conducted prior to development on the site. Along with the remains, they discovered various regimental insignia of the former Middlesex Regiment.

The Middlesex Regiment cap badge which helped to identify Private Meager. (Crown Copyright).

JCCC research and DNA testing identified one set of remains as Pte Meager: reported missing on 18 August 1917 during the early stages of the Battle of Passchendaele.

With no remains recovered at the time of his death, he was commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial. Despite extensive additional testing, the other two men were not able to be identified so have been buried as unknown soldiers of unknown regiments.

Nicola Nash, JCCC case lead said: “Although it was disappointing to not name all three men, we are thrilled to finally lay Pte Meager to rest. The Battle of Passchendaele is best known for the horrendous conditions that the soldiers had to fight through and the huge number of casualties. 

“Pte Meager and these two unknown soldiers tragically lost their lives during this battle. Today, we honour their sacrifice and pay tribute to their memory”.

Members of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment travelled from the UK to lay their fellow soldiers to rest.

Members of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment bringing in the coffin of Private Meager. (Crown Copyright).

Alan and Kathleen Meager, great nephew of Pte Meager and Alan’s wife, said: “We feel extremely honoured to be one of the lucky families whose relative has been found.

“We are so thankful for all the amazing work that has been done to identify William and for the respect shown by the local people of Belgium.”

The service was conducted by the Reverend Paul Collins, 3rd Battalion, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (PWRR). The Reverend Collins said: “It is wonderful to know that men and women of our armed forces are not forgotten even when they died so long ago.

“Being able to lay them to rest and conduct the military funeral honouring their sacrifice will be a highlight of my ministry within the Royal Army Chapins Department.”

The graves of Pte Meager and the two unknown soldiers will now be cared for in perpetuity by CWGC.

Director for Central and Southern Europe at the CWGC, Geert Bekaert, said: “Since his death we have ensured Pte Meager has not been forgotten, but today we are very glad to be able to finally lay him to rest along with two of his comrades at our cemetery.

“We will care for their graves in perpetuity.”

We will remember them

 In Flanders’ Fields

In Flanders’ fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky the larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders’ fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders’ Fields.

 ‘We saw some infantry transport come up, and there was a lieutenant quartermaster there. I went over and he said: ‘How are you off for grub?’ so I said ‘We’ve only got biscuits and bully’. He gave us some bread and butter, tea and jam. He was  chap who was getting on for fifty, I should think; a lieutenant quartermaster, not a fighting man at all, and yet he’s brought up all these rations.

He was practically in tears – he said his lads wouldn’t need it. You see, when you lost men it was a day or two before you could stop their rations coming up. The Army Service Corps would still be sending up the rations of so many men while you might have lost half of them. And what happened to all that grub? You’d live like fighting cocks on what was left for a day or two!

In the evening Noble, Robbins and myself went up to Trones Wood. There were no trees left intact at all, just stumps and treetops and barbed wire all mixed up together. And bodies all over the place, Jerries and ours.

Robbins pulled up some undergrowth and as we fished our way through there was this dead Jerry, his whole hip shot away and all his guts out and flies over it. Robbins just had to step back, and then this leg that was up in a tree became dislodged and fell on his head. He vomited on the spot. Good Lord, it was terrible.’

Gunner Leonard Ounsworth , Royal Garrison Artillery: The Somme 1916

The only way up from Ypres was by a plank road fifteen to twenty feet wide. All munitions had to travel a considerable distance up this plank road, and the mud was so deep that on one occasion, with drag-ropes, it was still impossible to pull the guns out of the mud.

The mud and the conditions were absolutely indescribable, You saw fellows coming down from the trenches badly wounded, covered from head to foot in mud and blood, and perhaps an arm missing. You saw some fellows drop off the duckboards and literally die from exhaustion and loss of blood. Horrible, it was. 

Gunner Sidney White, Royal Artillery:  Passchendaele 1917 

I remember trying to help a lad in this copse about a hundred yards from our jumping-off trench. There was no hope of getting to him, he was struggling in the middle of this huge sea of mud. Then I saw a small sapling and we tried to bend it over to him. We were seasoned soldiers then, but the look on the lad’s face was really pathetic – he was only a mere boy. It pricked my conscience, I felt I should try to do something more for him, but I couldn’t do a thing – had I bent it a little more I should have gone in with him, and had anyone else gone near this sea of mud they should have gone in with him too, as so many had.

Sergeant Cyril Lee: Passchendaele 1917

 They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.