Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 16 October , 2012 Share Posted 16 October , 2012 Downloaded this today from the CWGC website; its identical to the copy that’s been in my cemetery photo collection for years, but something just prompted me to check. Unchanged for maybe ninety years. Anybody know where it is … or more properly where its meant to be ? Ninety years – somebody must have “noticed” (France). Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Yes, it is a difficult one. Clue – strong Canadian connection, and the errors are not insignificant, but rather monumental. I do wonder how many visitors might have stood outside it over the years, plan in hand, and convinced that they are at the wrong cemetery (though the cemetery name beside the entrance tells them they are not). Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 17 October , 2012 Share Posted 17 October , 2012 It is Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian Cemetery, which as you say bears scant resemblance to the plan. http://www.cwgc.org/...METERY, SOUCHEZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 17 October , 2012 Admin Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Cigar goes to you I think Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 It is Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian Cemetery, which as you say bears scant resemblance to the plan. Chris – correct. Here is the CWGC plan, and then one I’ve re-jigged to show the layout as it actually is. The orientation of the cemetery relative to north and the location of the two seats are the only two things which are correct ! I’ve probably been in this cemetery ten or more times over the years, but it wasn’t until I was passing a photograph of it to a fellow GWF member yesterday that it suddenly struck me that the cross was “in the wrong place”, and then looking at the plan I realised that all the headstones and special memorials had been rotated 180 degrees. Who signed the “approved” box on the original IWGC drawing of this, all those years ago (Drawings sent to CWGC). Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 17 October , 2012 Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Don't ask me how but somehow I just knew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Ok Chris - but do you know which GWF subscriber I had sent the photo to (obviously I wont tell you, but I just want to test those powers of yours further ). Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian Cemetery Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chalkhill Blue Posted 18 October , 2012 Share Posted 18 October , 2012 Beautiful situation (nowadays). Here in autumn, 2011. Anybody got a rake? Bryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 18 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 18 October , 2012 Beautiful situation (nowadays). Here in autumn, 2011... Sorry, but I have ask - did you encounter any problems finding the entrance gate to the cemetery ? Seriously ! (You have to have been there to understand). Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chalkhill Blue Posted 18 October , 2012 Share Posted 18 October , 2012 None at all, Tom. It was quite unobstructed - as in my photo, just to the left of the Great Cross. The great fissures and pot-holes in the tarmac track climbing up the ridge were another matter... Bryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 19 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 19 October , 2012 Bryan – (I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek) the reason I wondered about finding your way into the cemetery was to see whether you’d found the entrance gate by yourself, or if you’d relied upon the sign erected by the CWGC to show you where the entrance is > These have been popping up all over the place during the past few years, more often than not at cemeteries where the way in is blindingly obvious, - to the extent that if somebody couldn’t find it then they really shouldn’t be out on their own ! In the majority of cases, such as here at Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian Cemetery, these signs are not only pointless, but they also intrude on the appearance of the cemeteries. I have taken up the issue with the CWGC. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 1 November , 2012 Author Share Posted 1 November , 2012 Dear Mr Tulloch-Marshall, You will be pleased to hear that the cemetery plan for the above cemetery has been amended to reflect how it actually appears on the ground. This will appear on the website in due course after its update later on this evening. Thank you for pointing this out. Martin. Martin Skelly Records Administrator Headstones Commonwealth War Graves Commission 2 Marlow Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 7DX, United Kingdom Resolved then … or it would have been if this had not exposed a problem at CWGC whereby modifications to plans on their internal database are not transferring over onto the website as they are intended to. Apparently a similar problem has come to light almost simultaneously with a correction for the cemetery plan for El Alamein. CWGC are working on it and the revised plan will be on the www in due course. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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