3 Winnipeg WWI soldiers among 4 Canadians laid to rest at military cemetery in France

The remains of four Canadian soldiers,including threefrom Winnipeg,who were killed in France during the First World War have been laid to rest more than a century after they died in battle.

With family members in attendance, they were buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Loos British Cemetery outside Loos-en-Gohelle, France on Thursday.

The remains of the three Winnipeggers Pte. William Del Donegan, 20, Pte. Henry Edmonds Priddle, 33, and Sgt. Archibald Wilson, 25 were found near the village of Vendin-le-Vieil. The all belonged to the 16th Canadian Infantry Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

They died on Aug. 16, 1917, one day after the start of a 10-day campaign that became known as the Battle of Hill 70. The remains were discovered between August 2010 and August 2011.

On May 22, 2018, the Department of Defence announced the three Winnipeg soldiers had been identified.

On May 28, a fourth soldier, Pte. John Henry Thomas, of Birch Ridge, N.B., was also identified.

Federal Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O'Regan, along with senior military officials, also attended the burial ceremony in France.

"Although many years have passed since they were lost, it is meaningful to give these soldiers the dignity and respect of a military burial in a Commonwealth cemetery. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten," retired Brig.-Gen. David Kettle, secretary general of the Canadian Agency of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, said in a news release.

Donegan was born on March 27, 1897, in Ottawa, and moved to Winnipeg in his youth. He worked as a railway clerk before enlisting.

Priddle was born on May 17, 1884, in Norwich, Ont. and moved to Winnipeg with his wife in 1910, finding work as a broom-maker.

Wilson was born on Feb. 12, 1892, in Campsie, Scotland and moved to Canada with several of his siblings in 1910. He worked as a barber, with plans of eventually owning a farm in Manitoba, before enlisting in 1915.

"As we mark this year the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, we remember and honour these four soldiers and the nearly 61,000 other brave Canadians who gave their lives in the defence of Canadian values in that horrible conflict. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten," Sajjan said in the release.

The Battle of Hill 70, which lasted from Aug. 15 to 25, 1917, aimed to capture the town of Lens from German troops, and draw forces away from a major Allied offensive around Passchendaele, Belgium.

It saw brutal fighting, often hand-to-hand, and the use of poisonous mustard gas by German troops. The 100,000 Canadian forces who fought in the battle suffered 9,200 casualties, including 2,100 dead, but managed to capture the western half of the town before German resistance halted their advance.

The battle marked the first time in the war Canadian forces had fought under a Canadian commander.