Woburn Cemetery

[Guest gunner perrott]

Hi,

The following cemeteries well all consolidated into Woburn Cemetery. the info comes from the CWGC site.

Does anyone have any info on these cemeteries? I have mailed the CWGC but would welcome any additional info.

THE CHERIOTS, RUE-DU-BOIS, RICHEBOURG-L'AVOUE, in an orchard on the North side of the Rue-du-Bois West of Richebourg-L'Avoue, where 16 soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from India were buried in the summer of 1915.

KING's CLAIRE, CUINCHY, on the road to Givenchy, where 20 soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in 1915.

No. 1, HARLEY STREET, CUINCHY, on the road running South from Cuinchy station, which contained the graves of 29 soldiers from the United Kingdom and two trench soldiers, and was used from November, 1914 to December, 1915.

PONT-FIXE POST OFFICE CEMETERY, CUINCHY, used at intervals from January, 1915 to April, 1918, and containing the graves of 35 soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Canada.

VAUXHALL BRIDGE ROAD CEMETERY, CUINCHY, where 24 soldiers from the United Kingdom and ten from Canada were buried in 1914, 1915 and 1918. The name "Vauxhall Bridge" was given to the bridge over the canal near Cuinchy station.

Regards

Leigh

[Terry Denham]

Leigh

Don't expect too much info from CWGC as they probably don't hold any.

These cemeteries were cleared by the army before the concentrated cemeteries were turned over to CWGC for the building of architecture and erection of headstones.

[Guest gunner perrott]

Terry,

So would it have been the Army that gave the info on the number of casualties and thier nationality?

I am researching a guy who was burried in Cuinchy early in the war but now has no know grave.

Is it possible to assume that if they knew the nationalities that they were all named or that they were listing the nationalities just from artifacts buried with the body.

The plot gets thicker.........

[Terry Denham]

Gunner

The army did all the battlefield clearance and concentrations - not CWGC.

The cemeteries were only handed over to CWGC when the army was satisfied that they were complete in terms of the number of burials they were designed to contain. CWGC then officially took responsibility and proceded to build the infrastucture around the basic cemetery.

The army would have provided CWGC with all the info they had amassed on each of the cemeteries and their occupants.

Many men who had known burial locations with a name during the war were subsequently lost. This was usually due to battle damage (shelling) during following fighting. Many graves were totally obliterated in this way. Occasionally, the body could not be found after the war due to a wrong location/map co-ordinates being recorded etc.

In these circumstances CWGC erect a Special Memorial to the man in a nearby cemetery stating that the casualty's grave in xyz cemetery has been lost. This is different to a man being 'missing' (ie never found or at least not identified). These men are on the memorials to the missing.

Many bodies had their nationality/rank/unit known but not the name so you cannot assume that if the nationality was known, the name was known also. It does not follow.

A body without a head and without any identifying items could still be identified to unit or nationality by badges etc. Even having a head did not usually help when the body was found long after death.

Also, 'nationality' in CWGC's terms means the nationality of the unit rather than of the man.

[Guest gunner perrott]

Thanks Terry,

Thats kind of what I was guessing.

I know this lad was buried in Cuinchy from his casualty form. He is listed on the LE TOURET MEMORIAL as no know grave.

From the diaries and maps I am building up an idea of where his unit was burying people.

There is a fairly high chance that his grave was bombed as it dated from early in the war. Then again so did most of these small cemeteries cemetries.

There is also a chance that I might be able to pinpoint his possible whereabouts and get a memorial like the one you mention if I can proove beyond most doubt that he is in one of the nearby cemeteries. Its a slim chance but fun doing.

Many thanks

Leigh

[Terry Denham]

Leigh

Of course, your man may have been found when the other cemetery was searched but all identification had disappeared. Wooden markers etc did not last long under shelling.

He may now be lying under an 'Unknown' headstone rather than still be at the original site or blasted away. In which case, Le Touret Memorial is the correct place for his commemoration.

You would have to prove both that he had been buried there AND that he had not been found there before a Special Memorial could be considered. This could only be done with certainty if no 'Unknowns' had been recovered from that original cemetery.