Ian C Posted 15 November , 2008 Share Posted 15 November , 2008 Hi In my quest for Great War connections to Bletchley/Fenny Stratford I have recently come across Clarence J Abrahams, RFC who died on 19/5/17, looking on CWGC I saw that the cemetery named was Vis en Artois, but instead of a grave reference there is one for the Sailly-en-Ostrevent Com. Cem. Mem. This may be a stupid question but is this a memorial within the Vis en Artois cemetery, I asked because I would read that reference as the Sailly-en-Ostrevent Communal Cemetery Memorial, which I would take to be different to the Vis en Artois British Cemetery. Am I just confused or stupid? Regards IanC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 15 November , 2008 Admin Share Posted 15 November , 2008 Sounds like it is a special memorial to those who were known to be buried in that cemetery but their graves were lost in later fighting. Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Bagshaw Posted 15 November , 2008 Share Posted 15 November , 2008 Hi Ian, The memorial is in the grounds of the Vis En Artois Cemetery. The CWGCplan shows the memorial to be near the memorial: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 15 November , 2008 Admin Share Posted 15 November , 2008 And this from the CWGC site Vis-En-Artois and Haucourt were taken by the Canadian Corps on 27 August 1918. The cemetery was begun immediately afterwards and was used by fighting units and field ambulances until the middle of October. It consisted originally of 430 graves (in Plots I and II) of which 297 were Canadian and 55 belonged to the 2nd Duke of Wellington's Regiment. It was increased after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the battlefields of April-June 1917, August and September 1918, and from the smaller cemeteries in the neighbourhood. The cemetery now contains 2,369 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 1,458 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to eight casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate four soldiers buried in other cemeteries whose graves could not be found on concentration. The cemetery was designed by J R Truelove. Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Denham Posted 15 November , 2008 Share Posted 15 November , 2008 Michelle is right. This is a Special memorial in Vis-en-Artois to those buried in Sailly-en-Ostrevent Communal Cemetery. This means that the bodies there could not be found when the cemetery was cleared - either because they had been destroyed by subsequent fighting or they simply could not be found due to inaccurate information. There will be a headstone with Abrahams' name on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian C Posted 15 November , 2008 Author Share Posted 15 November , 2008 Thanks All That clears it up. Terry, I assume the headstone will be somewhere in Sailly-en-Ostrevent CC ? Regards IanC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Denham Posted 15 November , 2008 Share Posted 15 November , 2008 Ian No. That is the point. Sailly-en-Ostrevent CC will no longer exist or, at least, no longer have any war graves marked. The headstone will be in Vis-en-Artois as is customary in such cases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian C Posted 15 November , 2008 Author Share Posted 15 November , 2008 Cheers Terry Regards IanC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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