A Locket of Hair Helps Identify Body of WW1 Soldier Almost 100 years After Death

Sidney Halliday died in the Battle of Amiens, 1918. Before he left Manitoba for the front, he and his sweetheart Lizzie Walmsley exchanged lockets with hair inside.

Attestation Papers for Sidney Halliday

Sidney was one of many soldiers from a Winnipeg regiment (the Winnipeg Grenadiers) who were killed  at the Battle of Amiens in France. He was just 22 years old. His body was never found.

But in 2006 the remains of 8 soldiers were found in a muddy field in France. 4 were identified but 4 were unknown. Luckily the  locket with Lizzie Walmsley's name engraved on the outside and containing a lock of her  hair was found. A search of the records of the missing soldiers from that Winnipeg regiment revealed that Sidney Halliday asked for $10.00 to be given to Lizzie Walmsley in the event of his death.

I was curious about what happened to Lizzie  so I did a little research. I suspect that she may be the Elizabeth Walmsley born in Manitoba in 1900 who married David Sands in 1920.

Continue reading this touching story at WW I Canadian soldier's remains identified