AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5055, 22 November 1926, Page 1

AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER.

RELICS FROM THE GRAVE. HOPES OF IDENTIFICATION. A work the Imperial War Graves Commission is carrying out with success is the quest for the remains of those of our New Zealand soldiers who were killed on the Western Front and buried without their names being discovered. Any clue that will leaid tb the identification of the bodies 'found is followed very carefully by the Commission in order to acquaint the next-of-kin of the deceased soldiers. Of the bodies recovered, in very many cases the identification discs are missing, and it is sometimes found from well-preserved relics that the name of a deceased soldier can be established. In the terrific battles fought on the Western Front many of our men were reported missing, and any information of them gathered from relics is highly appreciated by the relatives of the soldiers. By the lats mail there reached the Hon. R. F .Bollard (Minister of Internal Affairs) a pathetic relic which was recovered with .the remains of an unknown deceased Ne,w Zealand soldier buried on the Western Front. It was a locket of a woman ajnd a little girl, no doubt the wife and daughter’ of the deceased'soldier whose remains were located. The badge reproduced under the locket shows that the soldier was a member of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. In the photograph the locket, which is I's carat gold, has been enlarged to .about twice its original size. Mr Bollard said it was hoped that publication of a photograph of the relics would result in the name of the soldier benig ascertained. “I am naturally anxious,” he said, “to send ■ the relics recovered td the woman and child whose photographs are in the locket.”