French Flanders: From Laventie to Neuve Chapelle Part Nine – Pont-du-Hem Military Cemetery

This is Pont-du-Hem Military Cemetery, the largest of the cemeteries we shall be visiting in either part of our current tour.

Around 1,750 men are buried here, in twelve plots,…

…and the cemetery contains a large number of post-war concentration burials,…

…men brought in from the surrounding battlefields and from a considerable number of smaller British & Indian burial grounds.

In fact, all the graves you can see in these early pictures are concentration burials,…

…the original, war-time, burials all to be found in Plots I, II & III, with a few in Plot IV, at the far end of the cemetery.  Unsurprisingly, about half of the men buried here are unidentified.  The cemetery plan, courtesy of the CWGC, can be perused by clicking the link.

Looking back at the Stone of Remembrance, the cemetery entrance hidden behind.  We shall tour the cemetery in a clockwise direction, with the usual interjections, beginning with the five headstones to the right of the Stone in this shot,…

…these five Indian Army cremations, three Sikhs and two Hindus (third & fourth headstones), all men who died in September 1915.  Above the name – all five are identified – is the added inscription ‘This Sikh/Hindhu Soldier of the Indian Army is interred here’.  Which is why, perhaps somewhat confusingly, the cemetery plan refers to these headstones as ‘Indian Memorials’, not to be confused with ‘Special Memorials’, of which there are plenty in this cemetery.

In fact, all died on the same day, 25th September 1915, and you would be forgiven for once again thinking that a German shell was responsible for their deaths, but on this occasion, you might be incorrect.  The first three of these men died of wounds, only the final two listed as ‘killed in action’.  Which is not to say that a German shell may have killed two and mortally wounded three, but equally their causes of death may have nothing at all in common.

Beyond the Indian graves, the thirty headstones of Plot VIII, split into five rows, six graves in each,…

…are nearly all unidentified soldiers, only four identified men to be found among them.

Looking north west across the cemetery, Plot VIII now in front of us, the five Indian cremations and the cemetery entrance on the right.

Plot VIII again, looking west across the cemetery, and if we pan to our left,…

…this is the route we shall take as we follow, intermittingly, Plot XI, in shadow on the far left, along the cemetery’s southern boundary.

‘In Perpetuity’ tablet, in English, and enclosure.

Plot XI stretches the length of the cemetery along the southern boundary, with the headstones of Plot VI facing us on the right.

Of almost four hundred men buried in Plot VI, only 101 are identified (of those the majority – sixty six – are 1915 casualties),…

…all the men visible here in the first row, Row L, being unidentified.  Anyway, returning to Plot XI on the far left, and noting the three headstones in a group near the spindly tree,…

…we find three men, two officers of the Royal Welch Fusiliers killed on 25th October 1914 who share the same grave reference number (Plot XI C1) on the left, and on the right, a Royal Welch Fusiliers NCO killed on 6th November 1914.

Plot XI continues as far as the western boundary in the background, Row C in the foreground and Row D behind, and we shall return to these headstones once again in a while, but turning round,…

…and looking north, back towards the entrance, across the eastern half of the cemetery, let’s take a stroll along the gap seen here at the end of Plot VI,…

…to the very centre of the cemetery, now looking east.  Time, methinks, for a 360 (take note of the building far left).

Panning to our right across Plot VI,…

…and turning round, now looking south across Plot IV, the majority of burials within post-war concentrations, and the headstones in Plot XI that we have been following along the boundary visible far left.

Continuing clockwise, still looking at Plot IV, Row H in the foreground,…

…passing a young Durham Light Infantry subaltern killed in July 1916, and a South Staffs private, a Battle of the Lys casualty, who died on 13th April 1918,…

…and was originally buried, along with four other men, by the Germans in Bousbeque Communal Cemetery German Extension.  Note that the Germans had erected crosses for at least some of these men.  Although there are a number of 1916 & 1918 burials in Plot IV, the majority of the burials in the plot are from 1917.

Further back, these seven closely-spaced headstones at the start of Plot IV Row E (some of which need replacing), all but one identified, are casualties from April 1917,…

…and these in Row D from June 1917.  The CWGC website tells us that the cemetery was used until April 1918.  It wasn’t really.  The penultimate original burial made here is a man buried in Plot IV Row B who died in early July 1917, almost certainly the final burial made here by the British during the war.

The fact that two men listed on this GRRF* (one, Lieutenant Gustav Hermann Kissel, U.S. Army Aviation Section, Signal Reserve Corps, was an American with a German name attached to 43 Sqdn. Royal Air Force) died in April 1918 and must have been buried, along with the unknown men around them, by the Germans, doesn’t really mean that the cemetery, a British cemetery, let’s not forget, was open until that time.  Well, not to me, anyway.

*note that this row is a mix of original & concentration burials, graves 4 – 9 being the concentrations.

With Plot IV now on the left, on the right,…

…Plot III, six of the eight rows within containing only German graves.

The Germans buried a lot of men here during their tenure of the cemetery in the spring and summer of 1918, far more than now remain, which, as you can see, is still a sizeable amount.  We shall find ourselves back in Plot III later, when we’ll discuss further the large number of German graves in the cemetery.

We finish our 360 (in case you’d forgotten) here at Plot V, with the building I suggested you remember near the centre background.

Meanwhile, back at Plot XI, and the headstones along the southern boundary that we were following earlier on,…

…Row C contains, in total, fifty eight Royal Welch Fusiliers, all 2nd Bn. men killed between 22nd October & 14th November 1914.  The battalion had recently returned from India, and was the first of the Royal Welch Fusiliers battalions to see action during the Great War, at Mons, in August 1914.

All these men were originally buried at the burial ground at La Cordonnerie Farm before being reinterred here after the war; as this form tells us (‘One cross with 55 names’), all but the two officers and the sergeant that we saw much earlier are now designated as Plot XI C3.

The final burials in Plot XI in the cemetery’s southern corner, regiments identified, but only the centre headstone bearing a name.

The first five rows in Plot II, the final plot on this side of the cemetery, are all original burials, but not Row F, seen above, the men, many of them Battle of the Lys casualties from April 1918, all reburied here after the war, the eight men at the far end all unidentified,…

…and the identified men nearer the camera listed here.

Looking north along the western boundary from the southern corner, Plot II now on our right.  The Duhallow Block ahead of us, and the long line of special memorial headstones along the cemetery wall, remember men who were originally buried in a number of German burial grounds that no longer exist, and thus their original graves have been lost.

The gaps separate memorials to men originally buried in different burial grounds (see cemetery plan for specifics),…

…as explained on the first of two Duhallow Blocks, ‘To the memory of these 23 soldiers and airman of the British Empire who fell in 1914-1918 and were buried at the time in the German cemeteries of Beaucamps La Gorgue and Pont-du-Hem in Edward Road Cemetery No. 3 (Windy Corner) and in Vieille Chapelle Churchyard’.

Cross of Sacrifice,…

…and beyond, the row of special memorials continues, with a second Duhallow Block,…

…listing these men’s original burial grounds, ‘To the memory of these 25 soldiers of the British Empire who fell in 1914-1918 and were buried at the time in the German cemeteries of Nouveau Monde and Laventie in Estaires Convent Cemeteries Nos 1 and 2 in Festubert North Small Cemetery and in Lacouture Churchyard but whose graves are now lost’.

Once again, I point you towards the cemetery plan for full details.

South easterly view looking back down the row of special memorials, with Plot I Row A on the left,…

…and seen again here, this the view from the western corner of the cemetery.  There was a Field Ambulance stationed here for much of the war, and the earliest original burials made here, as opposed to several hundred of the concentrations brought in after the war who died even earlier, are in Plot I Row A, as listed on the GRRF below.

According to the CWGC, ‘The cemetery was begun, in an apple-orchard, in July 1915’, but, as I have said on more than one occasion, one burial does not a cemetery make, and the only burial made that month, the first burial in Plot I Row A, is listed at the top of this GRRF.  It was 24th September 1915 before another burial would be made here, also listed on the above form, and a further ten men would be buried at the start of what are now Plot I Rows A to E before the month’s end.

The long row of headstones along the northern boundary, seen on the far left in the previous shot, is the single row of Plot X, which stretches the whole length of the cemetery.

Except it actually isn’t, the gaps you can now see further down the row each signifying a new row, from Row G at this end, to Row A, beyond the building in the distance, at the far end of the cemetery.

Large numbers of these burials are unidentified – only eighteen of the one hundred and twenty two headstones bear names – and all are concentrations.  We shall see more as we continue our tour.

Looking south across the six rows of Plot I, the first headstone in Plot III Row A in the left foreground.  Plot III Rows A & B are the final two rows of original burials here,…

…although I should say original British burials, as the remaining six rows contain only German graves,…

…107 of them in total.  And yet after the war 426 German graves (along with a number of Portuguese casualties from 1917 & 1918) were removed and reburied elsewhere,…

…begging the question, why were so many left here?

Well I’m sorry, but your guess is as good as mine.

Back to Plot X along the northern boundary,…

…only the occasional name…

…to be found among the predominantly unknown men buried here.

Looking south from the end of Plot X Row C, with Plot V (like Plot VI on the opposite side of the cemetery, by far the majority of the burials in Plot V are unidentified, most of the identified men being casualties from 1915), on the left, and further left,…

…the reverse of the headstones of Plot VII, this Row A at the back of the plot,…

…and this the view from the front, with the single identified soldier in the plot buried in Row E at the front (see GRRF below).  The headstones we have just seen in Plot X Row C can be seen again, in the background, along the boundary on the left.

Plot VII Row C, all six burials unknown Canadians, as you can see from the maple leaf emblems visible here…

…as are the men in Rows B & A behind.  Some of these headstones simply say ‘A Canadian Regiment’, others are more specific; 72nd Bn. Canadian Infantry, 16th Bn. Canadian Infantry,…

…British Columbia Regiment, and, of course, sadly I can find little to shed any light on where, why, or even when, these men were killed, although I do know, for example, that 16th Bn. was involved in the fighting at Festubert & Givenchy, not so far from here, in May 1915.  And the only actual clue, if such it is, is that the King’s Liverpool Regiment private in Row E, at the front of the plot (the only identified man in the plot – no picture I’m afraid) is listed on the GRRF we have just seen as dying on 16th May 1915, which does seem to fit, does it not?  I would suggest that these are all men who died in the spring of 1915.

Past the building, with another ‘In Perpetuity’ tablet, this time in French, on the wall inside, is the first headstone of Plot X Row B, as the long row continues along the boundary hedge,…

…this the view from behind, looking towards Plot IX beyond.  Three of the men in the foreground are unidentified, and two (see GRRF below) are identified December 1914 casualties.

All are, don’t forget, concentration burials, as are all the burials in these small plots we are currently viewing.

Plot IX, twelve of the fifteen identified burials in the plot men of the Yorkshire Regiment,…

…although, if you look carefully, no less than fifteen of the identified headstones in Rows D (nearest camera), C & B bear the inscription ‘Buried near this spot’.

Most of these men are Battle of the Lys casualties from April 1918, although three have dates of death in May, which seems a bit odd.  In fact, it’s quite impossible (prove me wrong.  Please!) to work out exactly what is going on in this plot from the documentation.  The three men on the right of this shot of Row B, although their regiments are known, are all unidentified; the three men on the left are all Yorkshire Regiment men, the two serjeants, Smith & Wood, both given the date of death of 12th April 1918 on their headstones.

Although here, where they head this list of burials, they are given a date of death of 30th April 1918, as are all the rest of the named men.  Although the date of Smith’s death has been changed, in pen, to 11th April.  The third name is that of the private who lies alongside them (his headstone actually says 9th April), and all the remaining names…

…repeated here,…

…can also be found with new dates, although crossed out, here,…

…and then reinstated here, where once only unidentified soldiers were listed, with the new dates of death alongside.  Deep breath.

We move on.  The small Indian Plot consists of ten headstones, split into two rows, of which only three are identified, one of them third from the left in the front row, a named lancer killed in December 1914.

Of the seven unidentified men, six have headstones with a known regiment beneath ‘A Hindu soldier of the Great War’,…

…the seventh man simply an unknown Indian soldier.

The two other identified men, on the left, are casualties from May & July 1915.  Behind,…

…we finally arrive at Plot X Row A which, as we saw on the earlier GRRF, contains only unidentified men,…

…although the regiments of two have been identified (above & below).

Back in the centre of the cemetery, we started our tour at the five Indian headstones on the right of the Stone, and we shall finish at the row to the left,…

…where nine special memorials, seven of them to Seaforth Highlanders, remember men who are believed to be buried in this cemetery.  The two headstones on the left…

…remember two men killed in mid-April 1918 (Battle of the Lys casualties), the rest of the headstones in the row, beginning with the one on the right here, are to Seaforth Highlanders killed on 8th August 1918.  Note that Regimental Serjeant Major George James Davis, Royal Scots Fusiliers, had received a DCM ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. During an attack he organised battalion headquarters details and a machine gun, taking up a position which checked the enemy, who were threatening the flank of the retiring companies. After covering the withdrawal, he brought his party back to the reserve line’.

As you all know by now, between mid-April and mid-September 1918, this cemetery, and all the land we are visiting on this tour, was in the hands of the Germans.  Despite the removal of many of the German graves, and all the Portuguese, the concentration burials brought here post-war means that now well over 1,700 men are buried here (the CWGC says over 1,500, but if you include the 107 Germans who remain here, there are at least a couple of hundred more).

 

We have now visited the first nine of the fifteen Great War sites of interest marked on this map that I originally showed you in the first post of this tour (Pont-du-Hem can be found in Square 14).  Part Two will take us to Neuve Chapelle, where the first British ‘victory’, if you wish to call it that, of the war would take place.  It’s a pity that, after Neuve Chapelle, ‘victory’ would be measured in yards rather than miles.  But before all that we shall take a break.

A few weeks back I visited the site of an old military hospital, with an exceedingly picturesque cemetery nearby (above) where over seven hundred Great War burials, British, German & Belgian, some of whom died in the very early weeks of the war, are buried.  So, being the selfless chap that I am (sorry – didn’t quite catch that?) I thought you might like to have a look at the place with me.  Coming soon.