Remains of First World War soldier from New Brunswick identified in France

OTTAWA — The remains of a New Brunswick man who died while fighting to take a French hillside during the First World War have been identified and will be given a proper burial.

The Defence Department said in a news release Friday that Sgt. Harold Wilfred Shaughnessy was found near the village of Vendin-le-Vieil — at the site where the battle for Hill 70 took place in August 1917.

He was identified using historical records, an identifying disc and forensics.

Born in 1884 in St. Stephen, N.B., Shaughnessy left his job as a stenographer and joined an infantry battalion, becoming part of the Canadian expeditionary force when he was 31 and dying in the battle at the age of 33.