French Burials in Ovillers & A.I.F.

[Peter Woodger]

Hi

The on line write up for A.I.F. Grass lane notes that there are 173 French plus German burials but the 1929 original Register tells me that there are 163 French remaining from the 416 originally buried.

The on line write up for Ovillers notes that there are 120 French burials but the 1983 edition of the Register adds “The unidentified French graves were removed by the French authorities later”

Does anyone have an original (1927) Register for Ovillers Cemetery and does it say how many French were originally buried?

The British appeared to bury French dead in these 2 cemeteries by their usual rules, the body was buried whether identified or not. This is not the French way and they later removed the unidentified bodies to treat them in their way.

The remaining French bodies in these cemeteries are neatly buried in ordered groups of 8. The French must have exhumed and reburied these bodies as they removed the Unknowns.

Peter