THE grave of an unknown soldier in Canada, a mystery for 146 years, has been identified as the last resting place of a Lancashire corporal.

Until now just a single marker has stood outside St John’s Church in Snyder, Ontario, to mark the solitary British casualty of raids by Irish-American Fenians in June 1866.

But historians have teamed up to solve the military riddle and now believe he was Corporal William Carrington, of the 47th Regiment of Foot (Lancashire).

Corporal Carrington was not killed in battle but died of heat exhaustion during a forced march from Stevensville to Ridgeway.

The Fenian fighters poured over the US-Canadian border in a bid to secure the state for an Independent Ireland.

Recorded casualties in battle at Ridgeway, including members of the Queen’s of Rifles of Toronto and the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, represented the first fatalities for the newly-emerging Canadian Army.

But the identity of the fallen Brit remained a mystery until two historians — one who knew about a grave without an identity, and another who had a casualty but no final resting place — solved the puzzle.

Canadian newspapers and websites, including the Fort Irie Times and Niagara This Week.com, have now reported how the efforts of Rick Doan, a local historian, and an investigative historian, Peter Vronsky, from near-by Ryerson University, have solved the riddle.

Capt Carrington is said to have died, aged 28, en-route to the frontline at Ridgeway.

Mr Doan said: “The records show it would have been sweltering hot that day, and these guys had 50 pounds of equipment strapped on over their wool uniforms.”

The Rev Donald Glennie, from St John’s, had been puzzling over the identity of the soldier for several years. Once defined by a wooden marker, in more recent times it has been replaced by a stone cross memorial, where a wreath has been left every Remembrance Sunday.

Dr Vronsky, the author of a book on the invasion, had been piecing together sources to arrive at the soldier’s name and unit, after reading about Carrington’s death via a short article in the Grand River Sachem, a newspaper of the day.

He said: “This obscure newspaper story stated that the citizens of Snyder had erected a grave marker for the fallen British soldier buried there.”

He has contacted the British authorities to ensure that Capt Carrington will not be forgotten.

The Battle of Ridgeway

  • The Battle of Ridgeway (sometimes referred to as the Battle of Lime Ridge) was fought near the town of Fort Erie across the Niagara River from Buffalo, New York, on June 2, 1866.
  • It was fought between Canadian troops and an irregular army of Irish-American invaders, the Fenians.
  • In the first hour of the battle, the Canadians appeared to prevail, driving Fenian skirmishers back.

  • The battlefield was designated a National Historic Site in 1921 and is the last battle fought in the Province of Ontario against a foreign invasion.