SUBMITTED PHOTO More than a century after Thomas Telford Edmundson was killed on a battlefield in Belgium during the First World War and buried in an unmarked grave, this relative of a local resident is given a military burial and laid to rest in a war cemetery.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
A local resident has forged a strong connection with a relative he had never heard of until his remains were found in an unidentified First World War grave.
Paul Edmundson calls it an “emotional connection” to his relative, Pte. Thomas Telford Edmundson, who died in Belgium on April 26, 1915 at the age of 21.
March 14, 2019 he was laid to rest in a moving ceremony that has touched the hearts of more than just his distant family.
“It’s almost like he had chains on him and now he doesn’t,” said Edmundson who likes to think of Thomas watching from above.
Edmundson and his wife Heather travelled to Belgium for the burial with military honours at Perth Cemetery near Ypres in Belgium.
They found Thomas’ name listed at Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium among the 55,000 names of soldiers whose remains have never been found. His name will now be removed because he has found his final resting place.
Every night since 1928, at Menin Gate, many people gather for a service within the 25 feet high walls. The service includes the playing of The Last Post.
“It is awe inspiring. It made my spine tingle,” said Edmundson noting it shows tremendous respect and a commitment to continue the tradition every day, year after year. “It goes above and beyond.”
The burial of Thomas was very moving too.
“I had shivers from the top of my head down to my tailbone,” said Edmundson.
The story even impacted people who are not relatives.
Davy Holt in Inverness, Scotland, visited the grave site two days after the burial and was so moved by the story that he wrote a poem, had it framed and placed it on the grave. Someone took a photograph and posted it on Facebook.
The poem is written from Thomas’ perspective and what he might have been hearing/seeing above the ground where he lay buried.
The sixth verse reads:
“I long lost count of the years, as year on year passed by,
Until from through the darkness I glimpsed a clear blue sky.
Men and faces stared at me as they cleared the earth away
And gently they did lift me from my shallow Flanders grave.
And now the time has come for me to finally rest in peace,
Beside the many heroes who fought for war to cease.
For just short of a century I was lost beneath the ground,
But as stones rise to the surface, I too was finally found.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”
Finding Thomas’ body and tracking down his relatives was against all the odds.
It was only because a new neighbourhood development was to take place at Zonnebeke that archaeologists were permitted to search the area. They found his body only 18 inches below the surface in 2014.
The only clue to his identity was a shoulder badge: Durham Light Infantry. Research included going through war diaries of all the different battalions from this regiment. Most could be excluded because they’d not seen action at Zonnebeke. Finally there was only one battalion that fought in the second Battle of Ypres in April 1915 with eight soldiers losing their lives. None of them had a marked grave and all eight are commemorated on the Menin Gate.
Edmundson met the people who found his relative’s remains and says only about 20 per cent of bodies found in unmarked graves can in the end be traced to living relatives.
In the case of Thomas a DNA test made the connection to several living relatives in Sunderland, England, in addition to Edmundson in Medicine Hat.
Edmundson has now discovered that Thomas, at one time, actually lived just two blocks from where he lived in Sunderland before emigrating with his family to Canada when his was five years old. Having moved away from England at such a young age Edmundson says there was not much family around.
Not much is known about Thomas’ early life and Edmundson is not aware of any photographs of him. Even though Edmundson’s grandfather was Thomas’ second cousin the bond between these men is strong.
Remembrance Day will never be the same again.
“It’s personal now,” said Edmundson.
