The remains of a Canadian solider killed in the First World War have been identified as those of a New Brunswick man.

Sgt. Harold Wilfred Shaughnessy of St. Stephen, N.B., was a member of the 13th Canadian Infantry Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).

He was killed at the age of 33 on August 15, 1917, in the Battle of Hill 70. His remains were found near the village of Vendin-le-Vieil, France.

Sgt. Shaughnessy was born in St. Stephen on November 3, 1884. He was a stenographer before enlisting in Montreal on August 4, 1915, at the age of 31.

“It’s so refreshing to think that we are still working hard to bring back our troops to a resting place,” says Wayne Spires, the president of the St. Croix Legion Branch 9. “A name like Shaughnessy is not well known in the community. He went to Montreal to enlist, and as far as we can find out right now, he has relatives in the states, around the Boston area. We don't know where he lived here in St. Stephen.”

Lee Windsor with the UNB Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society believes Sgt. Shaughnessy would have had a great deal of experience as a soldier.

"Sgt. Shaughnessey would have been one of those junior leaders who would have reached a professional peak of performance, and he wouldn't have come by that post without experience,” says Windsor. “The eyes that you see in that photograph, I suspect he'd been in other actions perhaps at Vimy Ridge, perhaps in the Somme."

The Battle of Hill 70, which began August 25, 1917, was the first major action fought by the Canadian Corps under a Canadian commander in the First World War. About 2,100 Canadians died in the battle; over 1,300 of these have no known grave.

Dr. Sarah Lockyer, the casualty identification coordinator for the Department of National Defence, was part of the team that identified the remains of Sgt. Shaughnessy.

“When it really hits you, when you’re able to attend the burials, meet the families, meet the DNA donor sometimes that you’ve spoken to over the phone a number of different times,” Lockyer said while attending Hill 70 commemorations in Northern France back in April. “That’s when it really starts to hit you, the real significance and the very real human impact that it has on fellow Canadians and people who these were their family members who gave up their lives for our country.”

On June 6, 2016, human remains were discovered during a construction project near Vendin-le-Vieil. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) took possession of the remains and artefacts found with them. They were transported to a facility in Beaurains, France, for safekeeping.

In addition to the forensic anthropological analysis, artefacts used to identify Sgt. Shaughnessy included an identification disc and a signet ring.

The town of St. Stephen is now trying to determine how best to remember this soldier.

“We're looking for ways to properly honour him. We do have Remembrance Day ceremonies coming up. We have a big one coming up in 2018 so were looking for ways to incorporate this and honour him,” says St. Stephen mayor Allan MacEachern.

Arrangements are being made to bury Sgt. Shaughnessy in France later this year.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Nick Moore