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Remembered Today:

CWGC War Grave versus Non-War Grave


Terry Denham

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Salient

The memorial to which you refer is to Gnr Albert Edwin Wheeler RHA Died 07.05.82.

It is at Herenthagstraat, Zillebeke.

It is only a memorial headstone. He is not buried there but his ashes were scattered at Bedford House Cemetery.

The memorial is on private land but the landowners voluntarily look after the stone. It bears the inscription "Resting with his comrades"

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Notice that the above appears to be a copy of an official CWGC war grave headstone - at least in shape - rather than the more proper Non-World War type.

However, as this is not a grave, no rule or custom has been broken!

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On a tangent, in a French cemetery near me, there are WW2 graves of Russians. Some are marked 'Soldat Sovietique' others, 'Soldat Russe'. There is no distinction of date or anything else.

Does anyone happen to know whether there is any distinction between these two terms or was it, as someone has suggested that two different men did the captions?

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Sorry to restart what was known already, but it is impossible to know all the former threads . Thanks anyway for the link to the thread. Although I

am going from time to time to this cemetery, I still learned more about the backgrounds of the dcision to move the graves.

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On a tangent, in a French cemetery near me, there are WW2 graves of Russians. Some are marked 'Soldat Sovietique' others, 'Soldat Russe'. There is no distinction of date or anything else.

Does anyone happen to know whether there is any distinction between these two terms or was it, as someone has suggested that two different men did the captions?

Not all citizens of the USSR - i.e. "Soviets" - were Russian. Alternatively, are the "Russe" markings new? Perhaps after more recent events, graves that were originally "Soviet" at the time are no longer deemed to be so.

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There is also a Russian WW1 grave at Arras cemetery - again, different shape of stone. Odd location for a Russian. I knaw they had two brigades in the French Army, but to my knowledge no connection with the British?

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Terry thats the one, I took it for an actual grave, did wonder how he got permission for a burial there in so public a location but that explains things.The stone is an almost exact copy of the CWGC format. Many thanks salientguide

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