Tens of thousands of Chinese farm laborers are finally getting recognized almost a century after they left their homes to help Britain during the First World War.

In 1916, some 95,000 farm laborers in China were recruited to leave their homes and travel thousands of miles by ship to Europe, where they dug trenches, unloaded ships and trains, laid tracks, built roads and repaired tanks.

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The laborers, however, were eased out by the end of the war, and with no markers or tribute among Britain's 40,000 war memorials, the Chinese farm men were soon became known as "the forgotten of the forgotten."

Fast forward to 2014, when the Chinese community in Britain started a campaign to have a permanent marker in honor of the Chinese Labour Corps and the dirty, hard work the men did in the shadows of the front lines during the war.

Steve Lau, chairman of the "Ensuring We Remember" campaign, said the Chinese farm laborers were refused the right to settle in Britain after the war and were literally painted out of a giant canvas that recorded all of the nations who helped France win the war.

The men, who were mostly from remote areas in China, worked many hours for days on end during the war, with only three holidays to rest, including Chinese New Year. After the war ended, the Chinese laborers were left on the battlefield to clear out live ordnance and exhume bodies which they had to move to the new war cemeteries.

Lau said Britain distributed some 6 million commemorative medals to all those who volunteered and were recruited in the war, but the medals that the Chinese men received were bronze, not silver, and had only their numbers, but not their names.

But the Chinese community's campaign to have the Chinese Labour Corps' war efforts recognized was not in vain.

Lau said a permanent memorial in either Southwark or Westminster in central London is scheduled to be unveiled in 2017.

The Chinese embassy and the Chinese in Britain Forum are reportedly backing the project.

TagsNews, World News, Society news, Society, Chinese Labour Corps, World War I