Belgian Cemeteries

Bedford House Cemetery, Zillebeke Dickebusch Old Military Cemetery Dickebusch New Military Cemetery and Extension Hautrage Military Cemetery Hooge Crater Cemetery, Zillebeke Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery Passchendaele New British Cemetery Poelcapelle British Cemetery Saint Symphorien Military Cemetery Bedford House Cemetery, Zillebeke The cemetery is about one and a half miles south of Ypres and comprises several enclosures that were originally separate cemeteries but now form one, some being divided from the others by an extensive water filled moat. Bedford House was the name given by the Army to the Chateau Rosendal, the ruins of which are still clearly visible and which was used by field ambulances and brigade headquarters. A bridge erected over the moat by the Royal Engineers still stands and is in regular use by the gardeners and visitors; shell damage to its steelwork can still be seen. The cemetery contains over 4,500 British burials, 350 Canadian, 200 Australian, 30 New Zealand, 20 South African and 20 Indian. Seventy of the British graves are of soldiers of the BEF who died in the area in the fighting between 24th and 26th May 1940, and were moved into the war cemetery from their battlefield graves.

Dickebusch Old Military Cemetery Dikkebus (in Flemish) lies three miles south-west of Ypres and the cemetery was on the front line during the first three months of 1915. It contains 40 British, three Canadian and one German burials of the 1914-1918 War. During 1940 the cemetery was again used by the British and a further 10 burials made. It is unusual for such a small site to have graves of both the wars. Back to the top

Dickebusch New Military Cemetery and Extension These two cemeteries are further along the track and each side of it, but are treated, so far as possible, as one site. The New Cemetery was begun in March 1915, in succession to the Old, and was used until May 1917 by nearby fighting and medical units. It contains 530 British, 85 Canadian and 10 Australian burials, including 100 artillerymen. The Extension was begun in May 1917 and used until the following January, even during the German attack which reached Dickebusch Lake on 8th May. It contains 520 British and 25 Australian burials, and small numbers from Canada, South Africa and Germany. These burials include 260 artillerymen. As these two sites are treated as one the Stone of Remembrance is in the north-west corner of the New Cemetery and the Cross of Sacrifice at the western apex of its triangular extension. Back to the top

Hautrage Military Cemetery The village of Hautrage lies nine miles west of Mons ('Bergen' in Flemish) and the cemetery is to its south-east. The Germans were in occupation of the village for almost the whole of the 1914-1918 War and opened the cemetery in August 1914. The first burials were of German soldiers who died on 23rd August 1914 in the Battle of Mons. In the summer of 1918 they concentrated into it a large number of British soldiers who had also died in the battle and had been temporarily buried in the field by their comrades, the Belgian Red Cross, and the Germans. The cemetery now contains over 500 German burials and over 200 British, including a large proportion of unknowns. Among those buried here is Second Corporal Edwin Marsden RE, who died on 23rd August. He was the inventor of the improved trestle for bridge building accepted by the War Office and known as the Marsden Band Trestle. Even though the cemetery has far more German than British burials, the Commission has, in agreement with the Volksbund, assumed responsibility for its maintenance, and all the graves are treated in exactly the same way. (St Symphorien Military Cemetery described below, also contains Commonwealth war graves from the early days of the Western Front.) A soldier who died on 8th November 1918, just before the end of the war, is buried in the single war grave in nearby Hautrage Communal Cemetery. He was Lance Sergeant C.T. Harris of the PPCLI (Canadian Infantry) of Regina, Saskatchewan, but born in Southampton, England. Back to the top

Hooge Crater Cemetery, Zillebeke The cemetery is on the road from Menin to Ypres, the road along which the German Army made desperate attempts to advance in October and November 1914 to take Ypres. They were forestalled by the BEF, the 'Old Contemptibles'; and even though the Kaiser was present in person on 29th October 1914 to urge on his soldiers, Ypres was not taken. Hooge was taken by the Germans in May 1915 and the cemetery's title refers to a British mine exploded there, the crater of which can still be seen symbolically by the paved, sunken area surrounding the Stone of Remembrance. The area was the scene of the first use of liquid fire by the Germans on 30th July 1915 and pyrotechnic smoke or gas was seen issuing from the ground in the late 1970s. The cemetery was begun in October 1917 but most of the burials were brought in from isolated sites on the battlefield after the Armistice. It contains over 5,000 British, 100 Canadian, 500 Australian and 120 New Zealand burials. Back to the top

Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery The cemetery is in the village of that name about two miles south-west of Poperinghe. The village lay close behind the extreme range of most enemy field artillery and was therefore a natural place for the establishment of casualty clearing stations, firstly by the French and later the British. The French opened the cemetery and the British began to use it in June 1915. Between that month and the Armistice, it became the second largest Commonwealth cemetery anywhere and is now the second largest in Belgium (Tyne Cot Cemetery is the largest). It contains nearly 10,000 Commonwealth burials of which 7,400 are British, over 1,000 Canadian, over 1,000 Australian, nearly 300 New Zealand, and 30 South African; the French burials number almost 700. As this cemetery served hospitals, the great majority of the dead were identified. There are also about 30 graves of members of the Chinese Labour Corps, who were part of the British Army. The headstones were carved by the comrades and, in addition to the names and particulars in English and Chinese, a short motto chosen by the Chinese was inscribed, of which examples are 'A noble duty bravely done' and 'A good reputation endures for ever'; these two inscriptions are frequently seen in this and other cemeteries. Nearby Poperinghe was the birthplace of the Toc H movement (Talbot House--Toc then being signaller's phonetic for the letter T), and the original club house is still in regular use. Its sign proclaims '1915-?'. Lieutenant G.W.L. Talbot, the Rifle Brigade, whose name was given to the movement, is buried in Sanctuary Wood Cemetery, Zillebeke. Back to the top

Passchendaele New British Cemetery The village of Passchendaele is about seven miles north-east of Ypres and the cemetery is half a mile to the north-west of the village. The immediate area was, from October 1914 to the end of 1918, one of the most fought over in the war. The 5th Canadian Infantry Brigade captured the village on 6th November 1917 during the Second Battle of Passchendaele, itself part of the Third Battle of Ypres, 1917. However, the line was pulled back in the Battles of the Lys in April 1918 and the village not finally recaptured until Belgian forces took it on 29th September during the general Allied advance. The cemetery was made after the Armistice by the concentration of burials from the battlefields of Passchendaele and Langemarck (at Langemarck there is a German Cemetery containing about 50,000 war dead). Almost all of those in Passchendaele Cemetery died in the autumn of 1917, a time of heavy and desperate fighting. The burials comprise 1,000 British, 650 Canadian, 300 Australian and 125 New Zealand, of whom more than three-quarters could not be identified by name. Back to the top

Poelcapelle British Cemetery Just over a mile from the village of Poelcapelle, which is itself seven miles north-east of Ypres, is the third largest Commonwealth war cemetery in Belgium. Many of the dead were involved in the Third Battle of Ypres 1917 (often known as Passchendaele). Over 6,000 could not be identified by name, as they were not recovered until after the Armistice. The cemetery contains 6,500 British dead, nearly 550 Canadian, over 100 Australian and nearly 250 New Zealand. Private John Condon, age 14, is buried here. Back to the top

Saint Symphorien Military Cemetery The village of St Symphorien is about three miles south-east of Mons. The cemetery is about half a mile south of the village and was constructed by the Germans for the burial of both their own and British soldiers who died in the Battle of Mons on 23rd August 1914. Most of the British dead were from the Middlesex Regiment (the Germans erected a still standing memorial to them and honoured them by referring to the 'Royal' Middlesex Regiment), the Royal Irish Regiment and the Royal Fusiliers. The cemetery contains the grave of probably the first Commonwealth man to die in battle on the Western Front, that of Private J. Parr, Middlesex Regiment, who died on 21st August 1914. There are also graves of probably the last battle deaths on that Front before the 1 100 hours Armistice of 11th November 1918: Private G.E. Ellison, of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers and Private G.L. Price, 28th Battalion Saskatchewan Regiment (Canadian Infantry), both of whom died that day. Also in this particularly interesting and unusually laid-out cemetery is the grave of Lieutenant M.J. Dease, Royal Fusiliers. After being wounded on several occasions he died on 23rd August and was awarded the first VC of the 1914-1918 War. Private S.F. Godley, Royal Fusiliers, who was fighting alongside Lieutenant Dease and survived the action was also awarded the VC. He is thought to have been the model for Captain Bruce Bairns father's famous cartoon soldier character 'Old Bill'. The cemetery is laid out at different levels on a hillock caused by past mining of phosphates. It contains about 230 British burials (of whom 65 are not identified by name) about the same number of Germans, and two Canadians. There are certain similarities between this cemetery and Sage War Cemetery, Oldenburg, Germany, which is described below. Back to the top

The text on this page has been taken from Courage Remembered, by Kingsley Ward and Major Edwin Gibson. Cemeteries | War Memorials