Canada _ (Commonwealth Union) _ More than 100 years after a Vancouver soldier died in France, his bones have been identified following a decade of study using DNA tracking to go back many generations. The remains of Cpl. Percy Howarth, a First World War soldier, were found in 2011 in Vendin-le-Vieil, France, during a munitions clearing process. It would take ten years for researchers to search through his family tree and locate a living relative from his maternal line, however, before he could be identified.
When he participated in the Battle of Hill 70 in Lens, France, in August 1917 as a member of the 7th Canadian Infantry Battalion, Howarth was 23 years old. He is widely believed to have perished in the conflict. In the conflict, more than 10,000 Canadians lost their lives, were injured, or went missing. Among them were 140 members of Howarth’s infantry unit, 118 of whom are unknown to history.
The list of individuals the bones might belong to is extensive, according to Sarah Lockyer, the casualty identification coordinator for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces. The metal title on the shoulder of the uniform made it obvious that the bones belonged to a Canadian.
Despite the lack of information on the individual’s exact unit, a whistle discovered with the remains showed the person had a higher rank than a private, according to Lockyer.
The list was further reduced by estimating the age and height of the bones until just a few dozen names remained of the most plausible contenders.
The search for the living relatives of the troops on the short list who would consent to have their DNA tested then started. Only one form of DNA, which is unique to mother to child transmission, could be extracted from the bones. Finding a live member of Howarth’s maternal line was necessary for specialists to corroborate or disprove his claims.
