Martin Wade tells the story of how the final resting place of a fallen Newport soldier was found 99 years after he was killed on the Western Front.

IT’S a ten-minute walk from Tony Fowler’s house in Maindee to where his uncle, Private Fred Holland, lived on Bristol Street. But nearly 100 years separate the day when he died in France from when his resting place was finally found.

Tactics before the Battle of Arras in 1917 give lie to the idea that men were simply thrown thoughtlessly to their deaths. Lessons had been learnt from the disastrous Somme offensives which saw thousands killed on the opening day.

Artillery barrages were now carefully synchronised so that they were 'creeping' ahead of advancing troops. New shells that could destroy barbed wire were deployed. Techniques in finding and destroying enemy artillery were well advanced.

But for one Newport soldier these advances meant little as his unit, the 17th Welsh Regiment, attacked. Part of the allied offensive, they were one of the units attached to the 40th Division attacking the Germans’ Hindenburg Line.

At 4.15am on April 24, the 17th Welsh attacked enemy lines with the aim of taking a ridge a mile away. The advance, according to the battalion's adjutant, was made as coolly and steadily "as if on parade ground". After marching 600m they met uncut barbed wire and came under heavy machine gun fire. But by 9.40am the Welsh had made their way to the German trenches and taken 40 enemy prisoners.

The 17th were later congratulated for their conduct in the action in taking what became known as ‘Welsh Ridge’. They had “behaved very steadily” said the report and received congratulations from commanders of brigade, division and corps. By the time their objective was won, however, Pte Holland was dead. He was just 19.

Nearly a century after that fateful day, First World War writer Steven John found an unmarked grave in Fifteen Ravine British Cemetery, in the French village of Villers-Plouich.

While visiting the cemetery, named after the site of the battle, his curiosity was sparked: "I noticed there was just one unmarked grave out of a series of others from the Welsh Regiment”.

The researcher had built up a database of Welsh casualties on the Western Front and this he scoured. He checked the names of those of the fallen who had no known grave from the memorial at Thiepval. He eventually established that is was Pte Holland and sent his evidence to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. They confirmed that it was his grave.

More discoveries followed. At this point the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre became involved. They work to trace relatives of the unknown fallen when their names are finally discovered. Researcher Nicola Nash found his family lived on Bristol Street in Newport and it was at this stage that she made contact with Newport man Tony Fowler.

They also found that Pte Holland was one of twins. His brother Walter also served on the Western Front but was invalided out after being gassed and losing a lung. Along with father and mother Fred and Lillian, 13 Bristol Street also housed Mona, Matilda, Nora, Dorothy and Richard.

Tony Fowler is 65 and he belongs to a very select group of people who are just one generation removed from the First World War.

By virtue of the fact his mother Dorothy married late, he is the nephew of Pte Holland, who was born in 1898.

Another tragedy which befell the family explains why. Pte Holland’s mother Lilian died in 1923 after suffering cancer of the womb. Now, as the eldest woman of the family, Dorothy, or 'Dolly' as she was known, would shoulder the burden of bringing up the four young girls and one boy. This work meant she did not marry and start a family until later in life.

Pte Holland’s gravestone was re-dedicated earlier this year. Tony travelled to France with his brother, ex-Welsh regiment soldier Des for the ceremony. There they met another relative of Fred’s – his great niece Jan Miller who lives in Southampton. “We had never met before, we never knew of each other, but it was wonderful to see her” he said.

“I’m just very grateful to Steven and Nicola for helping to make this happen” he said.

Pte Holland’s grave was re-dedicated with a new headstone erected bearing his name on 23 March, nearly 99 years after his death.

At the ceremony, as well as a wreath of poppies, Tony laid five long-stemmed roses - one for Fred's mother and one each for his sisters. Tony said: "It was quite emotional, especially when I laid the flowers." He admitted it was also very affecting to see the graves of other soldiers who were still unknown and of those German soldiers who died on the same day, most probably in the same attack.

The graves of the Welsh Regiment's soldiers all carried the regimental crest of the Prince of Wales’ three feathers with the motto of 'Ich Dien' - German for 'I serve'. Tony was struck strongly by the irony of the Welsh soldiers carrying those words in the language of the men they were fighting. Along with the flowers, he laid a Welsh flag at Fred's grave, adding: "it seemed to me that the English, Scottish and Irish soldiers were recognised by the Union Jack, but the Welsh weren't."

Since his death on that April morning, his body was thought to have been lost and he had been commemorated, with thousands of others who had no known grave, on the Thiepval Memorial.

His name will now be removed from there as Pte Holland’s resting place has finally been found.