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from (Canadian) National Post Thursday 25  May 2000

Richard Foot
National Post

POZIERES, France - The body of Private David Carlson -- and the 84-year-old mystery of its whereabouts -- were both laid to rest yesterday in a remote war cemetery in northern France.

Pte. Carlson, an Alberta farm boy who volunteered for duty in the First World War, died in September, 1916, during the blood-soaked Battle of the Somme. He was only 19.

Like thousands of other Canadian dead whose bodies were consumed by the mud or blasted apart by artillery shells, Pte. Carlson's corpse was never found. His parents, and a twin brother who survived the war, died without knowing where he lay.

A sister who later travelled to France in search of his remains passed away in the early 1980s.

Yesterday, however, two great-nieces of Pte. Carlson wiped away tears as his recently discovered remains were lowered into the ground inside a casket draped smartly with the Canadian flag.

"I cried today," said Darlene Petersen, who was invited from Edmonton last week to attend the funeral of her long-lost great-uncle.

"I keep thinking about Lydia, David's sister, who came to France a couple of times and wrote to Ottawa in search of David's remains. She was always sad because she couldn't find him."

In January, an English family on holiday in France stumbled across Pte. Carlson's body while hiking. Hazel and Andrew Brockley and their children were in the midst of a freshly ploughed field when they noticed a handful of old bullets, scraps of soldiers' webbing, and a couple of uniform buttons showing through the dirt. The family notified the French police, who called the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, who dug up the remains of Pte. Carlson.

"It was quite unnerving really," said Hazel Brockley, who returned with her family for Pte. Carlson's funeral. "But it's nice that they found the relatives."

The French soil yields the remains of about 25 missing First World War soldiers every year, but few are ever identified. However, the bones of Pte. Carlson carried with them a small metal tag inscribed with his name, rank, and the name of his unit, the Manitoba Regiment.

Pte. Carlson had no direct descendants, therefore Canada's Department of Veterans Affairs despaired of ever finding relatives. In May, however, the Royal Canadian Legion located members of Pte. Carlson's family in Edmonton. Two were flown to France this week to attend the funeral at Pozieres Commonwealth war cemetery, just south of the trenches where Pte. Carlson died during the attack on Courcelette.

Mrs. Petersen and her cousin Linda Marfleet stood solemnly side by side, surrounded by 150 mourners yesterday as a foggy, grey firmament loomed above the French countryside. Brigadier-General Murray Farwell, Chaplain General of Canada's Armed Forces, read the funeral service. He was joined by an Australian chaplain also interring the new-found remains of an unknown Australian soldier.

Both soldiers were buried with full military rites, including a gun salute. George Baker, Minister of Veterans Affairs, read a joint eulogy. "Today, we mourn Pte. Carlson and his colleagues who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom and for peace," Mr. Baker said. "We will never forget."

General Maurice Baril, Canada's Chief of Defence Staff, said the ceremony was proof Canada does not forget its lost soldiers. "This will remind all Canadian men and women in uniform that when you give your life for your country you'll be taken care of no matter where you are, and whether it's last year or 80 years ago."

"I couldn't believe that someone from World War One could ever be found like this," whispered Mrs. Marfleet afterward. "It's going to allow closure for our family."