Soldier buried 90 years after war

More than 300 people were at the ceremony at Prowse Point

A Lancashire Fusilier has been buried nearly 90 years after he gave his life in World War I.

Private Richard Lancaster, of the 2nd Battalion of the Fusiliers, was buried with full military honours in Belgium.

More than 300 people, including his two granddaughters, were at Wednesday's ceremony at Prowse Point, which they described as "very emotional".

Pte Lancaster's remains were found in 2006, with two unidentified others, who were also buried with full honours.

A fourth soldier, found a year earlier during archaeological excavations at the Ypres-Roulers railway, is also being laid to rest, at Tyne Cot cemetery.

Private Lancaster was killed three months after he went to war

Pte Lancaster's remains were found near the Ypres battlefield last year.

His granddaughter Myra Webster, 69, from Rossendale, said: "It was a beautiful ceremony, very emotional.

"We were touched that so many people came from all over and brought such lovely flowers."

On 9 October 1917 six battalions of the Lancashire Fusiliers took part in a final push to take the railway and the ridge at Poelkapelle.

A total of 307 men were killed in action - 247 of them have no known grave and are commemorated on the rear wall of the cemetery.

Born in 1882, Pte Lancaster, a former weaver, married in Burnley and was mobilised in August 1914.

He was killed in action just three months later.