Dives Copse

[KIRKY]

HI

Anyone have info on Dives Copse on the Somme? What was it used for and any history relating to it?

[Kate Wills]

Here is the CWGC history of Dive Copse Cemetery (by the way, is anyone visiting sometime? I'd like yo know if one of the graves bears a personal inscription):

In June, 1916, before the Somme offensive, the ground North of the cemetery was chosen for a concentration of Field Ambulances, which became the XIV Corps Main Dressing Station. A small wood close by, under the Bray-Corbie road, was known as Dive Copse, after the name of the officer commanding the Main Dressing Station; and the cemetery was made by these medical units. Plots I and II were filled in the first three months' fighting. Plot III contains the graves of 77 men who fell in August, 1918 (when the cemetery, occupied by the enemy in the spring, was retaken), and of 115 whose bodies were brought in from scattered graves and small cemeteries in the neighbourhood. There are now nearly 600, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, 30 are unidentified and four soldiers of the London Regiment and six of the Australian Imperial Force are known to be buried among them and their names are recorded on special headstones. The cemetery covers an area of 2,383 square metres and it is enclosed by a brick wall. The only considerable cemetery concentrated to Dive Copse was Essex Cemetery, Sailly-le-Sec. This burial ground was 914 metres further North, on the edge of the Bray-Corbie road. It was begun by the 10th Essex Regiment in August, 1918, and it contained the graves of 30 soldiers from the United Kingdom and three from Australia.

[Nicolas G.]

Dive Copse Cemetery (by the way, is anyone visiting sometime? I'd like yo know if one of the graves bears a personal inscription):

Goodday Kate,

Dive Copse Cemetery is 5 mn from my place. Tell me how I can help.

Nicolas.