Down this grass pathway the soldiers lie.
Around eight hundred of them.
And from this viewpoint, it all looks a bit bleak, perhaps. But it’s a grey day, and doubtless sunshine would make all the difference.
The Cross of Sacrifice abuts the cemetery entrance,…
…and look at that! There are people here! I don’t meet fellow pilgrims on my visits that often – probably the antisocial times of year I have often chosen for my trips over the years – and these guys were just leaving as we arrived.
The dates on either side of the cemetery entrance say 1915-1919,…
…and the village of Reninghelst (now Reningelst) was under initially French and then British control from the late autumn of 1914 until the end of the war. By 1915, once the trench lines to the east had stabilized, the surrounding area would have been teeming with activity day and night,…
…the landscape criss-crossed by tracks and railways (post-war views, above), ammunition dumps,…
…indeed dumps of all sorts, this one consisting of timbers for road building or trench construction, here seen being unloaded from a train at Reninghelst in April 1916,…
…gun pits for long-range artilery pieces (above & below – a 6 inch field gun of the 7th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, in action at Reninghelst, 15th June 1916), their muzzle flashes hidden from the Germans by the high ground to the east,…
…and littered with camps to house the huge influx of soldiers which, with the arrival of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Flanders in early 1915, and later both Australian & New Zealand troops, necessitated new billets for tens of thousands more soldiers. And this in turn necessitated the construction of camps. Lots of camps. This image shows the officers’ mess kitchen of the Canadian Divisional Royal Engineers at Reninghelst in April 1916,…
…and here Royal Garrison Artillery gunners lounge outside a bomb-proof dug-out at Reninghelst, June 1916. And you don’t construct bomb-proof dug-outs where you don’t anticipate being bombed.
This map shows Poperinge in mauve in the top left, Vlamertinghe, a little over four miles away, in blue, top right, on the way to Ypres, and Reninghelst at the bottom, in red, but what is of most interest, if we zoom in a bit,…
…Reninghelst now bottom left, is that this map shows many of the numerous camps that littered the landscape (click to enlarge). The ten camps highlighted in red are all Canadian*, clockwise from top left St. Lawrence, Erie, Toronto, Moose Jaw, Vancouver, Halifax, Montreal, Winnipeg, Ottawa and, at the very bottom of the map, Quebec. Among the other camps highlighted are, from left across the centre, Moonta Camp (yellow), which was an Australian camp, Devonshire Camp (green), the 6th & 7th London Regiments’ Scottish & Dominion Camps (both in pink) and just above them, in mauve, Auckland Camp, a New Zealand camp. Another camp, Pacific Camp, up in the top left, also in mauve, was, I think, a combined Australian-New Zealand camp. In the bottom half of the map, on the left, highlighted in grey, is Red Horse Shoe Camp, and in light blue, Downshire Camp. Hundreds of thousands of men were billeted in these camps, all of whom needed to be kept fed and watered and out of trouble, when not on fatigues or training behind the lines.
*in that the Canadians were the first to encamp there, and thus they were responsible for the camp names.
A man of the 12th Bn. East Surreys recalled his time at Reninghelst, ‘When the battalion arrived the village boasted a Y.M.C.A., and an Expeditionary Force Canteen. Within a short space of time a Divisional Canteen, Supper Bar and Theatre had arisen next to the Divisional Headquarters. It was quite a treat to go into the supper bar and be served with a tasty dish by some of the neat Belgian girls who were employed there as waitresses. Prices were moderate, and the atmosphere was that of a restaurant in England. In the canteen English beer was sold, thereby taking away some of the custom from the few estaminets, including the Swan, where the famous ‘Emma’ dispensed hospitality. The theatre became the home of our well-known Divisional concert party, the ‘Crumps’, and some of the latest films from England were also shown there.’ The 12th Bn. East Surrey war diary for both 25th October (above)…
…and 3rd November 1916 mentions the battalion’s arrival at Reninghelst and being billeted at Ontario Camp, which is not one of the ten camps on the map,…
…but luckily for us, the war diary contains a map reference for the camp, which turns out to be the group of huts here marked by the green circle on this map of the area immediately south of Reninghelst.
And there were field ambulance stations everywhere, not least here at Reninghelst, and field ambulances are guaranteed to nurture graveyards. Once inside the cemetery, here looking back at the entrance, a stone platform runs from north to south past the Stone of Remembrance,…
…from which, turning left, this view looks down the length of the cemetery. The burials can be followed from the earliest in 1916 here in Plot I, to the final burials from September 1918 at the far end in Plot V,…
…all five plots crossing the entire cemetery, with a gap, seen here right of centre, that runs the length of Plots I to IV, in the middle.
Except that the later burials are at the front of each plot – these men in Plot I Row J are all June 1916 casualties – with the earliest towards the back of each plot. So it’s probably worth taking a look at the cemetery plan at this point, for which, as always, I thank the kind folk at the CWGC.
Nearly 150 of the 216 burials in Plot I are Canadian, men who died between early April & mid-August 1916.
The burials in Row A – these men are, from left, artillery, infantry & medical corps – are from June,…
…July (left – artillery) & August (above & below, all infantrymen).
Looking back along the front row, Row J,…
…with many more Canadian burials visible in the rows immediately behind.
Late June 1916 Canadian infantry burials in the first part of Row H (there is no Row I),…
…and mid-July 1916 Canadian casualties in Row G, a Canadian Army Medical Corps serjeant in the centre, and on either side two 29th Bn. infantry privates killed on 16th (left) & 19th July (right) 1916.
The 29th Bn. were in the trenches to the east of here and their war diary tells of casualties on both days (above & below).
Looking at this close-up of the right side of the previous photo uncovers another aspect of this cemetery which is far from obvious and needs to be understood when trying to make sense of it. The three 29th Bn. men killed by snipers on 19th July mentioned in the war diary are all buried here, but not next to each other, their headstones marked above in orange. Some of the burials were made longitudinally here, and thus going along the rows, as we in essence tend to do, doesn’t necessarily explain the place. But it may make more sense now.
Looking back over the first three rows of Plot I,…
…and turning slightly left, this view looks north along Row F,…
…where we find more Canadians, two infantrymen – 25th Bn. on the left & 28th Bn. on the right – and, in the centre, a Canadian Army Service Corps private, all July 1916 casualties, these burials at the start of the second section of Row F. A total of twenty one Canadian infantry battalions are represented in this cemetery.
Thirty-five of the Canadians buried in Plot I died between 2nd & 13th June 1916 during the Battle of Mount Sorrel (or Hill 62), where today a memorial we once visited on a snowy afternoon remembers their exploits. These men closest to the camera in Row E died on 2nd June.
Further along Row E, two more of the 29th Bn. men killed on 16th (left) & 19th July (right) 1916 – we saw the headstone on the right in the background of an earlier shot marked in orange, if you remember. I shan’t say the obvious, in 2025, about an American flag and a Canadian headstone. Corporal Walter Henry Browne Collier was actually born in London to Californian parents.
Earlier British burials from February & March 1916 in Row D – two Northumberland Fusiliers flanking a machine gunner who served under an alias,…
…and here two Royal Welch Fusiliers and a Royal Scots captain.
Apart from a single West Yorkshire Regiment corporal, the second half of the row begins with more Canadian burials (above & below) from April & May,…
The death of Lieutenant William Duncan Stevens, buried on the far right,…
…is noted in the 29th Bn. war diary.
Two British subalterns killed in March 1916 at the end of the first half of Row C, on the left, Second Lieutenant Cecil Henry Kinsman, Royal Engineers, who died on 28th March 1916 aged 30, and on the right, Second Lieutenant James Wilson MacTurk Rainie, Royal Scots, who died on 27th March 1916, aged 19.
And then we arrive at the cemetery’s earliest burials. The second burial in Row B, on the left, was the first man to be buried here, Private E. Morgan, East Surrey Regiment, who died on 10th November 1915 aged 23. Next to him, Captain H. M. Chetwynd-Stapylton, R.F.A., who died on 14th November 1915, was the fourth. There are only thirteen casualties from 1915 buried in this cemetery, all here in the first three rows of Plot I; three in Row A, and five at the start of both Rows B & C.
Early 1916 burials further along the row. From left, Private Mark Deve, South Staffordshire Regiment, who died on 16th February 1916 aged 31, Captain John Arthur Walker, Royal Welch Fusiliers, who died on 19th February 1916 aged 24, and Company Serjeant Major H. Elwin, East Yorkshire Regiment, who died on 1st March 1916.
The second half of Row B, and of Row A behind, once again consists mainly of Canadian casualties. Closest to the camera, Richard Wood, who served under the alias of Private Richard Sherwood, 13th Bn. Canadian Infantry, died on 6th April 1916, aged 23.
Two of the British burials from late December 1915, both men of the Royal Lancaster Regiment, are located here at the start of Plot I, Row A,…
…this the view from behind the same headstones, looking towards the Cross of Sacrifice,…
…and now across the cemetery at Plot I.
Plot II consists of just five rows, these Canadians in the front row, Row E,…
…among sixty nine Canadians buried in the plot,…
…casualties from August & September 1916.
The first section of the row ends with two Canadian infantrymen attached to a light trench mortar battery, with a third in the row behind, all killed on 15th September 1916.
The second half of Plot II Row E…
…begins with another Canadian Army Service Corps casualty on the right, and on the left…
…the grave of Rifleman Robert Loveless Barker, 1/6th Bn. London Regiment (City of London Rifles), executed in November 1916, aged 21. Of the 332 British Army executions that took place during the Great War, only eighteen were for cowardice, as opposed to, for example, 266 for desertion and 23 for murder. Rifleman Barker was one of the eighteen. In June 1916 he was court-martialled for desertion and sentenced to death, soon commuted to five years’ Penal Servitude, a punishment which, with the Somme on the horizon and every man needed, was soon itself suspended. On 18th September, following the heavy fighting in the Flers-Courcelette area, Barker had refused to leave his dugout and covered himself with sandbags, saying: ’I won’t come out for you or anyone else’. The next day he was seen to leave the trench and run towards the rear as the Germans counter-attacked, and was then not seen for three days, until after the battalion had been relieved, when he reported that he had been in the care of a Field Ambulance in the interim. At his court martial his excuses were not believed, the Brigade commander writing that Barker was a degenerate whose ‘presence in the ranks was a danger’, and Loveless Barker was executed on 4th November.
The grave of Private Ewart Leonard Walker, 102nd Bn. Canadian Infantry, who died on 15th September 1915 aged 18, in Row D. Another Canadian infantryman attached to the Canadian Light Trench Mortar Battery, becoming thus the bane of his mates’ lives, killed the same day as those we saw earlier; light trench mortars were well known for appearing in a trench, firing off a few shells, and then vamoosing, leaving the men in the trench to face the inevitable retaliation from an understandably irate enemy.
More Canadian burials in Plot II Row C. From left, Private William W. Couldery, 54th Bn. Canadian Infantry, who died on 26th August 1916, aged 27, Serjeant C. C. Higgs, 102nd Bn. Canadian Infantry, who died on 1st September 1916, aged 23, and Major Arthur Thomas Johnston, also 102nd Bn. Canadian Infantry, who died on 2nd September 1916, aged 38.
The 102nd Bn. war diary mentions a ‘Sgt Scout’ killed in No Man’s Land on 1st September, which may well be Serjeant Higgs, I would have thought,…
…and, at the very end of the entry for 2nd September, ‘Major A. T. Johnston killed bullet through brain’ needs no explanation.
At the end of the first part of Row C, this is the grave of Francis George Andrew Lower, who served under the alias of Private Francis George Andrews, 16th Bn. Australian Infantry, and who died on 5th October 1916 aged 33. The earliest Australian burial in this cemetery, he is one of just four Australian burials in Plot II. Another hundred, all killed in 1917, can be found in Plots III & IV.
The burials in the second half of the row are all from 1917. From left, Bombardier Thomas Arthur Caine M.M., R.F.A., who died on 1st June 1917, aged 21, and then two officers who died on 9th June 1917, in the centre (and pictured below), Captain & Adjutant Gerard Montague Gordon, Royal Fusiliers, aged 26, and on the right, Captain Clive Alan Whittingham, R.A.M.C. attd. Royal Fusiliers, aged 24.
Continuing along Row C, Bombardier I. Spark, R.G.A., on the left, died on 15th June 1917 aged 22, and on the right,…
…the grave of Landsturmmann Peter Steinberg, who died on 15th June 1917, one of just two German burials in the cemetery.
Reverse view of Plot II Rows D (left) & C,…
…and turning to our right, Row B, with Row A behind.
Canadian casualties – another 29th Bn. infantryman and a C.F.A. driver – from August 1916 at the start of Plot II Row B,…
…and here the reverse of Plot II Row A,…
…before we look back at the two plots we have covered so far.
The first section of Plot III Row G, the first of seven rows in the plot,…
…and the second section of the same row, all the burials, from a number of different regiments, men who died in the second half of June 1917,…
…apart from three from the first two days of July towards this end of the row,…
…the July burials continuing in the second row, Row F.
R.F.A. casualties in Plot III Row F, with more in Row E behind (above & below). Thirty five British artillerymen killed between 5th & 18th July 1917 are buried in these two rows.
On the left, near the start of Row F, one of only three Canadians buried in Plot III, this engineer killed on 5th July 1917, alongside two R.F.A. men killed the following day,…
…with two more R.F.A. men at the start of Row E, both of whom died on 1st July 1917,…
…and many more as we look along the rest of the row,…
…the men in the foreground here R.F.A. casualties from July 1917. You can see large numbers of Australian burials in the rows behind,…
…with more here at the end of Row E, including, at the very end, the grave of Captain William Robert Aspinall M.C., Australian Army Medical Corps, killed in action on 20th July 1917, aged 24.
Gunner & engineer in Row D, both late July casualties,…
…and further down the row the grave of Captain George Frederick Pragnell (pictured), Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), who died on 2nd July 1917 aged 26.
Of the fifty one Australian soldiers in the plot, the majority, forty four, are Australian Field Artillery*, all casualties from July or August 1917. Still in Row D, Lieutenant Leslie Rider Bumpus, A.F.A., on the right, was killed in action on 22nd July 1917, aged 34.
*in total, seventy nine Australian artillerymen are buried in the cemetery.
On the left, the original headstone over the grave of Major William Duncan Kirkland M.C., Australian Army Medical Corps, who was killed in action on 22nd July 1917 aged 26, with his modern CWGC headstone in Row D on the right.
Next to him, the grave in the centre here is that of 39-year-old Brigadier General Charles William Eric Gordon, G.O.C. 123rd Brigade, 41st Division, with, on the right, Captain George Frederick Pragnell, Royal West Kent Regiment, both of whom died on 23rd July 1917.
Both Brigadier General Gordon (pictured) & Captain Pragnell were killed by a direct hit from a shell,…
…as detailed here in this extract from the 123rd Infantry Brigade war diary.
Plot III Row C with, on the left, the grave of Stanley Ben Rooum, a twenty nine year-old Middlesex private who died on 11th August 1917, one of four identified 2nd Bn. Middlesex men killed that day by a German aeroplane (as mentioned in the war diary extract below) who are buried at this end of the row, and on the right, another of the four unidentified burials in the cemetery.
More Australian Field Artillery casualties in Row C, on the far left, Lieutenant David Dowsett, and in the centre Major Horace Frederick Kingsmill D.S.O., both men killed in action on 8th August 1917. The headstone on the right is that of Lieutenant & Quartermaster F. C. Jackson D.C.M., London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), who died three days later on 11th August.
Note that there is no Christian symbolism on Major Kingsmill’s headstone.
The deaths of both Lieutenant Dowsett & Major Kingsmill are described in the Headquarters war diary of the 1st Australian Field Artillery Brigade.
Two more A.F.A. officers, both killed in action on 2nd August 1917, in Row C. On the left, Lieutenant James Patrick Ford, Mentioned in Despatches, and on the right twenty two year-old Captain Alfred John Glendinning (pictured), killed by a German artillery shell that struck one of the many dugouts beneath the railway embankment near Zillebeke Lake.
Their deaths are noted in the Headquarters war diary of the 2nd Australian Field Artillery Brigade. Bearing in mind that there is a burial ground (Railway Dugouts) that was being used by the Australians, among others, in 1917 right next to the railway embankment, it’s interesting that they were buried here instead.
Continuing along the row, this is the grave of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Murray Hope-Johnstone M.C., 12th Bn. Royal Fusiliers, killed in action on 31st July 1917.
31st July 1917, of course, saw the start of the Battle of Passchendaele.
Next to him, near the start of the row, the grave of Bombardier Arthur Victor Sargent, R.F.A., who also died on 31st July 1917, aged 20.
Two unusual graves in Plot III Row B. On the left, the grave of Sub-Conductor Frederick Thomas Dakin, Royal Army Ordnance Corps – actually Deputy Assistant Director of Ordnance Supplies Staff, 23rd Division – who was killed by a bomb dropped by a German aeroplane while resting in what was referred to as a ‘sleeping hut’ behind the lines on 17th August 1917, aged 23. And next to him,…
…the Reverend Alfred Willcox, Y.M.C.A., who died on 18th August 1917 aged 29. You don’t come across many such graves, so let’s take a look at why a Y.M.C.A. (Young Men’s Christian Association) priest might find himself buried in a cemetery such as this one.
On the outbreak of war in 1914 the Y.M.C.A., established in 1844 as a bible study group, began providing support for men serving in the armed forces, initially on the home front, but by the end of the year, across the channel too. By 1918, over three hundred Y.M.C.A. centres, often with a canteen, chapel, concert hall, library, games room, classroom and writing & reading rooms, were operating across the British sectors in France & Flanders.
And there was a Y.M.C.A. at Reninghelst – I refer you back to the East Surrey’s man from earlier, ‘When the battalion arrived the village boasted a Y.M.C.A., and an Expeditionary Force Canteen.’ With Reninghelst church in the background, the sign says ‘YMCA hut occupied this site. Shelled March 1918’, and the logo is most certainly that of the Y.M.C.A..
What’s more, we have much better images than that, because this picture, and those following, show the Y.M.C.A. huts at Reninghelst in their heyday, and looking much like those in the earlier drawing. Note the undamaged, at this time, houses nearby. The hut closest to the camera is the Officer’s Room,…
….seen again here (and below) on the left, the huts for N.C.Os & ordinary ranks on the right, with a sign promoting the evening’s entertainment next to the gate.
The sign outside the hut says ‘Officer’s Room: Piano, Reading, Writing, Library’ and, of course, ‘Afternoon Teas’.
And this is what it looked like inside.
‘Reading, Writing & Recreation’ and ‘Canteen’ signs outside the other ranks’ huts (above & below),…
…two shots showing their interiors,…
…and a third, this hut seen prepared for a theatre show, May 1917.
I suppose this is a perfect opportunity, as it’s been a while, to show you another book from my library.
‘Told in the Huts’ was published in 1916 (with minor punctuation proofing errors – two so far),…
…and I’ve had it for a very long time. Back in the eighties & nineties you could find such books nestling unloved in the back of secondhand bookshops – perhaps you still can, if you can find a secondhand bookshop – and I picked up all sorts of interesting tomes at that time – frankly, many much more interesting than this one. I may show you sometime.
Nonetheless, this is an intriguing piece of memorabilia, at least, and here are the contents pages…
…along with a single article extolling the virtues of ‘The Seven Wonders of the Y.M.C.A. Hut World’ (click to enlarge) for your pleasure, before we move on.
Back in the cemetery, although a long time ago, this photograph shows original Australian Field Artillery graves from mid-August 1917 in the first section of Plot III Row B, as are those in Row A behind. As there do not appear to be any graves yet behind these two rows, this photograph must have been taken before Plot IV was begun. And as the burials now in the first row of Plot IV (Row G) are all from late August and early September 1917, this photo was taken, literally, within days of these burials being made and the crosses erected.
Close to the Australian burials in Row B is the grave of Private Frederick Loader, 22nd Bn. (The Queen’s*) County of London Regiment, executed for desertion – he went missing on the first day of the Battle of Messines whilst already under a suspended sentence of death for the same offence – on 19th August 1917.
*hence the Queen’s emblem on his headstone.
The graves of Major Cecil Clive Bryan D.S.O., Royal Engineers, left, and Lieutenant Norman Francis Watts Barnard, Australian Pioneers, both of whom died on 11th August 1917, near the start of Plot III Row B,…
…the first grave in the row being an unknown man of the Middlesex Regiment who also died on 11th August 1917, the same date as the Middlesex men we saw earlier at the end of Row C.
Australian Army Service Corps private who died at the end of August 1917 in Row A,…
…and further along the row the grave of Colonel Harold Edward Street CMG*, R.F.A., who died on 25th August 1917 aged 41. Street had fought in South Africa and been in France since the beginning of the war, collecting no less than eight Mentions in Despatches, as well as the French Légion d’honneur.
*The CMG (Companion to The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George) can be awarded to those who hold high office or who render extraordinary or important non-military service to the United Kingdom in a foreign country.
Baldrick takes a well-earned break as we look back towards the Stone of Remembrance and cemetery entrance from behind Plot III Row A (above & below); note Reninghelst church in the right background. The second German grave in the cemetery, a serjeant who died in August 1917, can be seen on the far left of the second row, Row B, above.
Like Plot III, Plot IV contains seven rows, Row G at the front. These burials are from late August and early September 1917,…
…and a short distance along the row, these men, from left R.F.A.*, R.E. & Cambridgeshire Regiment, all died on 3rd September 1917.
*another headstone lacking a Latin Cross.
Looking back along the first half of Row G, the A.F.A. gunner at this end of the row who died on 4th September 1917,…
…seen again here on the left as we look down the remaining length of the cemetery,…
…before turning right, this the second half of Row G,…
…the men all September 1917 casualties, these three men, including one of only two New Zealanders buried in the cemetery on the left, all killed on the 7th September,…
…with burials from later in the month at the end of the row.
Behind, in Row F, the graves of Lieutenant Colonel David Graham McNicoll D.S.O., Mentioned in Despatches (left), Durham Light Infantry, who died on 20th September 1917 aged 33, and Captain Nathen Bright Risley M.C., Rifle Brigade, who died of wounds on the same day, aged 35.
And further along the row, on the left, Lieutenant Harold Roberts M.C., Australian Field Artillery, killed in action on 17th September 1917, and on the right, Private J. M. C. Darrell M.M., Durham Light Infantry, who died of wounds on 16th September 1917, aged 24.
The graves of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Graham Johnson, 3rd Division Ammunition Column R.F.A., killed in action at Ypres on 17th September 1917 aged 55,…
…Lieutenant Leonard Melsome Hasler M.C., Essex Regiment attd. Machine Gun Corps, who was killed in action on 21st September 1917, aged 21,…
…and here two more decorated men, on the left, Serjeant P. T. Whitehead M.M. & Bar, Middlesex Regiment, who died of wounds on 14th September 1917, aged 41, and on the right, Major D. T. Rogers D.S.O., Australian Field Artillery, who also died of wounds, in his case on 16th September 1917, aged 32.
Three men – Rifle Brigade, East Surreys & Notts & Derby Regiment – buried in Row E, all the burials in the row from mid-September 1917.
Those in Row D are from slightly later in the month,…
…these Australians killed on, from the left, 25th, 23rd & 26th September 1917.
Four Royal Engineers who died on 21st October 1917 at the end of Row C, with an interesting grave at the end of the row behind.
Which I didn’t photograph in close-up. Well done me. The final grave at the end of the second row in this shot, Row B, behind Lance Corporal Broadbent, is that of Private William Smith, Lancashire Fusiliers, who was executed on 14th November 1917 for having deserted before his battalion had been due to attack near Passchendaele on 9th October. Smith was a veteran of the Fusiliers’ Gallipoli experience, even if only twenty years of age when he was shot.
Still in Row B, an Australian engineer who died on 8th November 1917 on the left, and two Canadian artillerymen, a wheeler and a gunner, who died on 11th November 1917. And a second American flag. I know not why (this man’s parents were Canadian. I checked).
And still in Row B, another Australian, on the left, Lieutenant Hector James Abbott Ferguson M.C., killed in action on 21st October 1917, the same day as the Canadian bombardier on the right.
Rear views of the two parts of Plot IV Row B, October 1917 burials in the first section (above), and November 1917 burials in the second section (below).
One of forty nine Australian burials in the plot, Private William Thomas Smith, buried in Row B, died on 31st October 1917.
R.F.A. men killed on 18th February 1918 in Plot IV Row A,…
…and three men of the North Staffordshires, all three killed on 17th April 1918, at the end of the row.
Plot IV Row A, or at least part of it, the majority of the burials from the early months of 1918. And while we’re here, the single grave behind Row A, an unidentified soldier, is the only burial in Plot V Row D,…
…his grave marked in red here on this plan of the four rows of Plot V, the rest of Row D once filled with French graves long since removed, as were the French burials once in Rows B & A behind (all shaded in orange).
The space left behind Plot V Row C (crossing the picture) when the French graves in the first two rows were removed is seen here in the right background. Row C is split into three sections, the burials in the longest section, closest to the camera, and the centre section (below) all men who died between 17th & 26th April 1918, during the Battle of the Lys.
All are British except for a single South African engineer attached to 9th Divisional Headquarters, the only South African buried here, third from the left in this shot.
As this GRRF, which also shows the single unknown British soldier still in Row D at the bottom, reveals, the first grave in the row is vacant, a French artilleryman named Tatin once buried there, his name crossed through with red pen,…
…which explains the space between Private Penwill on the left here,…
…and the five graves now at the start of the row.
A closer look reveals these five graves to be Chinese Labour Corps casualties, the three on the right all killed on the same day, 12th April 1918, the man second from the left on 22nd March 1918, and the man on the left…
…on 20th December 1917.
And as this GRRF tells us, the five Chinese burials are designated as Plot 5 Chinese Row. It also shows another Chinese casualty at the start of Row B at the top of the form,…
…seen here, another man killed on 12th April 1918. And behind, in the corner of the cemetery,…
…the first grave in Row A is another Chinese casualty, this man dying on 26th May 1919, the only casualty from 1919 in the cemetery (the inscription at the cemetery entrance did say 1914-1919, you may remember). A battlefield clear-up casualty? A flu victim? Who knows.
The second grave in Row A, closest to the camera, is a Queen’s private who died on 6th September 1918,…
…followed by two Durham Light Infantry privates killed in mid-August 1918, and an R.F.A. gunner who died in early September 1918. But before we look at the final group of headstones in Row A,…
…back in Row B the burials continue with two early September 1918 casualties…
…and two July 1918 casualties, all listed on the earlier GRRF, with the graves we just visited in Row A behind.
Row B continues with eight men of the 2nd Bn. Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (six pictured above) of whom seven died on the same day. The odd man out, so to speak, is the officer on the far left, Lieutenant Archibald Fredrick Richard Linakar,…
…whose headstone (left) has both the Loyal North Lancashires and the South Lancashire Regiments on it, and presumably explains, if we knew the rules, why his headstone features a Latin cross whereas the others all have a Broad cross. Linakar had been seriously wounded in March 1915 whilst serving with the London Scottish, and had served in Palestine in 1917 & 1918. He was killed by German shellfire whilst acting as the battalion Signalling Officer at Kemmel on 9th September 1918, aged 25.
The fate of the seven other men, all killed on 28th August 1918, the final two pictured here on the left alongside two R.F.A. men killed on 3rd September 1918,…
…is explained in this extract from the 2nd Bn. Loyal North Lancashire’s war diary for the day.
The final burials in both Row A, and Plot V, and indeed the cemetery,…
…are this group of five men. Mid-September 1918 casualties at the far end, then a Royal Field Artillery private and, closest to the camera, Major William Yeates Hunter, Manitoba Regiment, Canadian Infantry, who was killed in action at the age of 50, both men dying on 28th September 1918.
As we head back towards the Cross of Sacrifice and the cemetery entrance, here looking across Plot II closest to the camera, if you’ve made it this far, for which I thank you, you might be wondering where we’re off to next.
Not far from here, about a mile to the north east, there’s another, considerably smaller, cemetery containing almost exclusively casualties from the battles of 1918, where we ought to pay our respects before we leave the Reninghelst area.
He’s cold. Again. But smiling. Cheers Balders.