Attempt To ID Scottish Sailor Killed At Arras

"ATTEMPTS are being made to identify the remains of a Scots sailor who died during one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War so that he can be given a full military burial.
The remains were found in 2016 on the site of the 1917 Battle of Arras in France. Shoulder flashes identified the owner as a member of the Royal Naval Division, formed by Winston Churchill to deploy sailors as infantry soldiers.
Now the MoD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) have narrowed down their search to just two missing Scots.
Able Seamen Andrew Turner Irvine and James Cameron Robertson, who were both 5ft 2in, were killed in the fighting near the village of Gavrelle on April 28, 1917, and are commemorated on the Arras Memorial.
The JCCC want to trace relatives of both so that DNA tests might identity the remains. Relatives will be invited to a full military burial service in July."
www.express.co.uk/news/uk/913378/WW1-Scot-sailor-soldier-killed-battle-France-bid-identify-remains-found-ceremony

 

*bump for an update*
The sailor has now been identified.
"A Scottish sailor whose remains were found near a World War One battlefield has been identified after 100 years.
The MoD previously said it was hoping to trace relatives of two men killed during the Battle of Gavrelle to undergo a DNA test.
But a match was confirmed after an amateur genealogist who read a BBC Scotland story on the appeal traced a nephew of James Cameron Robertson.
The able seamen from the Royal Naval Division will now be buried on 11 July.
Mr Robertson and Andrew Turner Irvine, from the same regiment, both died on 28 April 1917.
The sailors are commemorated on the Arras Memorial in France.
But a set of human remains, found in 2016 while a pipe was being laid, has now provided answers for one family."
Sailor's remains identified 100 years on