Remains of WWI Canadian Soldier Identified : Pte Sidney Halliday

Pte. Sidney Halliday (Photo from The Department of National Defence)

The Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces have identified the remains of a soldier who fought for Canada during the First World War.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Department of National Defence announced that it had identified the remains to be those of Pte. Sidney Halliday of the 78th Battalion, also known as the Winnipeg Grenadiers.

Born in England, Halliday moved to Manitoba in 1915 and later joined the Grenadiers. He died overseas at the young age of 22, the department said.

Halliday is among eight soldiers whose remains were discovered in 2006 and 2007 in the village of Hallu, located in the northern Somme Region of France.

The discovery of the remains was the largest find of unknown Canadian soldiers since the Canadian Forces began its Casualty Identification Program. All of the remains are believed to be of soldiers who fought with the 78th Battalion.

In September, the department announced that the remains of four of those soldiers had been identified as Lt. Clifford Neelands, Lance- Sgt. John Lindell, Pte. Lachlan McKinnon and Pte. William Simms.

The department said it will be working with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, along with the relatives of the soldiers to plan for an interment ceremony.

During the war, the Winnipeg Grenadiers were sent to relieve the 3rd Division in the Canadian lines after the first attack of the Battle of Amiens on Aug. 8, 1918.

On Aug. 10, 1918, the Grenadiers were ordered to capture the village of Hallu. During their advance, 26 soldiers from the battalion were killed and 54 soldiers went "missing." Of those 54 soldiers, thirty remain "missing" with no known grave, according to the department.

The department estimates that of the nearly 68,000 Canadian soldiers who died during the First World War, more than 19,000 have no known grave.

WORLD WAR I MEMORIALS

Lance Corporal William Halliday

FIRST WORLD WAR

Lance Corporal William Halliday, 17th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry. He was killed in action in France on 7th August 1916 during the Battle of the Somme and is buried in Cambrin Churchyard Extension, Cambrin, France

Surname	HALLIDAY
Forename	William
Rank	L Cpl
Service number	23019
Decoration
Place of birth	Lauder
Date of death	8 August 1916
Theatre of death	F&F
Cause of death	Killed in action
SNWM roll	THE HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY
Unit name	Unknown Unit attached to THE HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY
Other detail	17th Bn.

WORLD WAR I MEMORIALS

Second Lieutenant John Halliday

FIRST WORLD WAR

Second Lieutenant John Halliday, 2nd Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment. He was killed in action on 8th May 1918, aged 26. He was the son of John and Catherine Halliday of Eccles Mains, Kelso and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Dud Corner, Loos, France. 

Halliday One Name Study

HALLIDAY ONE NAME STUDY

Good news to report. I've adopted the 'Halliday One Name Study' which is a member of the Guild of One Name Studies. I think I originally registered the project in the late 1990's, but due to a young family and other restraints on time, I handed it over to Liz Holliday, who since then has continued to gather information about the surname and variants.

Liz is based in the south of England and has gathered digital and hard copy records for our name, especially from England and Wales statutory records and Wills. The majority of my existing records are for the Scottish Halliday/ Holliday clan members and these were gathered before the days of internet access and ScotlandsPeople.

Over the next few Mondays until Christmas, I intend to visit the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh and extract and collate birth, marriage and death indexes with additional information to get the data base underway. 

I'm still trying to decide the best format for working with this data :  Custodian 4, Brothers Keeper, spread sheets, data base, paper etc and how to display research in a user friendly format.

Anyway I hope to start using this blog again to keep you posted with developments. And many thanks again to Liz for all her hard work with the project over the last ten or more years. This is a project with no vestige of a beginning - no prospect of an end.