The long search to identify an unknown soldier

Sapper Henry Miller Sherwood, who served with C-Troop, 1st Parachute Squadron Royal Engineers was killed on 20 September 1944 by a mortar bomb landing in his slit trench in the grounds of Sonnenberg House near Sonnenberglane, Netherlands.

He is thought to have family scattered across East Renfrewshire and the surrounding areas.

In 1991 his remains were found in the very same slit trench and subsequently exhumed by the Netherlands Army’s Recovery and Identification Unit (RIU). Despite a Royal Engineers cap badge having been found, sadly at that time the remains could not be identified, due to the absence of dental treatment cards at the Army Records Office. His remains were interred in Oosterbeek War Cemetery in 1993, in grave marked: “a soldier of the Corps of Royal Engineers, known unto God”.

The search for his identity was resumed in 2005 by Officer Commanding RIU Lt Geert Jonker and Henry Sherwood successfully identified after Lt Jonker’s findings were confirmed by the eye witness to Sherwood’s death.