Six WWI Soldiers of Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment Buried at Tyne Cot After DNA Identification

On June 10, 2026, the remains of six First World War soldiers of the 2/4th Battalion, Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment were buried with full military honours at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Tyne Cot Cemetery near Zonnebeke, Belgium, 108 years after they died together in a shell strike near Gheluwe on October 6, 1918. Privates Horace Cook (Matching, Essex), Frederick Martin (London), Charles Russell (London), Thomas Whitaker (Bradford, West Yorkshire), Courtney Hart (Northampton) and Joseph Turnley (Bristol) were discovered by archaeologists in 2020 still wearing their regimental shoulder titles and equipment for repairing a Lewis Gun. The Ministry of Defence's Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC), known as the 'MOD War Detectives', traced descendants of each man to obtain comparative DNA samples, confirming positive matches for all six. A postcard from Bradford carried by Private Whitaker helped researchers reconnect estranged branches of his family. Descendants including Paul Turnley (great-nephew of Joseph Turnley) and Joe Whitaker (great-great-nephew of Thomas Whitaker) attended the service, with a bearer party provided by 1st Battalion The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.