WINNIPEG — The remains of a previously unknown soldier were identified on Wednesday as Private Sidney Halliday, who once made his home in Manitoba and died in battle alongside comrades from a Winnipeg-based unit.
“It gave me a rather strange feeling,” said Jim Halliday, the fallen soldier’s nephew, who resides in Boissevain, Man. “It made me feel like my uncle just recently died now that he’s been identified, instead of 100 years ago.”
It was a mystery nearly a century old when the remains of eight people, believed to be First World War soldiers, were discovered in Hallu, France, in 2006. The bodies of four of the men were identified in September, and Halliday is the fifth.
“My wife and I put a photo of him out in view on Remembrance Day. I don’t suppose a whole lot has changed other than the fact that we now know where his remains will be,” his nephew said.
Private Halliday was 22 at the time of his death. He was born in England but moved to Manitoba in 1915 to fight with the 78th battalion, known as the Winnipeg Grenadiers. He enlisted in Winnipeg and used a home address of Minto, Man., where he was an unmarried farmer.
On Aug. 11, 1918, the battalion was ordered to capture the village of Hallu. A government statement says 46 members of the 78th Battalion died during the advance, and 54 were missing. To this day, 30 are still considered missing and have no known grave.
“During an enemy counter attack on our lines in front of Hallu, he was instantly killed by the explosion of an enemy shell that landed in the trenches close by him,” says the circumstances-of-death register for Halliday. “Owing to a temporary withdrawal from the position his body could not be recovered for burial.”
The Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defense are working with the soldiers’ relatives to plan a ceremony honoring them and laying them to rest.
— With files from Lara Schroeder and Patrick Cain
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