Putting names to the lost soldiers of Fromelles
The first of the remains of 250 World War I soldiers found in France are being reburied with military honours after painstaking efforts to identify them. How do you put the right name on a headstone after so long?
Boots, purses, toothbrushes and other personal artefacts lay amongst the twisted skeletons at Pheasant Wood, offering partial clues about the men's identities.
But it is the unique genetic codes within these remains that offer the best chance of putting names to each unknown soldier.
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Boots, purses, toothbrushes and other personal artefacts lay amongst the twisted skeletons at Pheasant Wood, offering partial clues about the men's identities.
But it is the unique genetic codes within these remains that offer the best chance of putting names to each unknown soldier.
So far, more than 800 UK families who think they may have lost a relative at Fromelles have given DNA samples, but many will be disappointed.
The man whose job it is to help identify the soldiers says it is like finding a needle in a haystack, albeit with a very good metal detector.