We will remember them

The Searchers: The Quest for the Lost of the First World War

Robert Sackville-West (Bloomsbury, £25)

THOSE who have witnessed the re-interment of a soldier’s remains will know the solemnity with which it is done. A military bearer party, from the man’s regiment if the remains have been positively identified, carries the coffin to the graveside. The NCO in command removes the Union Flag with which it is draped, and the coffin is lowered into the ground. A bugler plays the Last Post. Three volleys are fired over the grave, an old custom signalling that the dead have been removed from the battlefield and the temporary