Birr Cross Roads Cemetery

[laughton]

Thanks to @Becstar who tipped me off about a set of missing COG-BR documents for this cemetery. That means there may be others. I have fetched the new ones and they are now on the shared MediaFire site:

 

Birr Cross Roads Cemetery ZIP Files

 

• COG-BR 2150631-2150673
•  
• COG-BR 2150710-2150797
•  
• GRRF 1810375-1810489

 

Now that I am here, I will come back and fill in the details from the CWGC with the locations of the cemeteries (TMC) of concentration and any other matters of interest.

 

Quote

The village and the greater part of the commune of Zillebeke were within the Allied lines until taken by the Germans at the end of April 1918.

 

The village was recovered by the II Corps on 8 September 1918. Birr Cross Roads was named by the 1st Leinsters from their depot. The cemetery was begun in August 1917 and used as a Dressing Station cemetery until, and after, the German advance in 1918. At the Armistice, it contained nine irregular rows of graves, now part of Plot I, but was greatly enlarged when graves were brought in from the surrounding battlefields and from certain smaller cemeteries, including:-

 

• BELLEWAARDE RIDGE MILITARY CEMETERY, ZONNEBEKE, was a little way North-East of Bellewaarde Lake, almost on the top of the low hill which rises northwards from the Menin Road between Hooge and Clapham Junction. It contained the graves of 17 soldiers from Australia, and eleven from the United Kingdom, who fell in September and October, 1917. The Battle of Bellewaarde Ridge was fought on the 24th-25th May, 1915; the Attacks on Bellewaarde were delivered, unsuccessfully, in June and September, 1915; and the Ridge, taken in July, 1917, and given up in April, 1918, was finally retaken by the 9th (Scottish) Division on the 28th September, 1918.
  • COG-BR 2150669 refers to exhumations from the Bellewaarde Ridge Small Cemetery No. 1 at 28.J.7.a.20.20
  •  
• • COG-BR 2150673 refers to 12 more
     
• BIRR CROSS ROADS CEMETERY No.2 28.I.17.a.80.95, seventy-five metres South of No.1 (the present cemetery), contained the graves of 18 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in July and August, 1917.
   
• UNION STREET GRAVEYARDS No.1 and No.2, ZILLEBEKE, were due North of Zillebeke village, between Gordon House and Hell Fire Corner. They contained the graves of 19 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in August and September, 1915.
   

There are now 833 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 332 of the burials are unidentified, but there are special memorials to nine casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate 18 casualties buried in Birr Cross Roads Cemetery No.2 and the Union Street Graveyards, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire, and one Belgian interpreter whose grave cannot now be found.

 

Starting at COG-BR 2150722 and on to COG-BR 2150727  (6 sheets) there are thirty (30) men concentrated from 28.I.17.b.3.8 which is referred to only as "from Small Cemetery". They cover a period from July to November 1917. That is close to, but not the same as, Birr Cross Roads Cemetery No. 2. Maybe there was another one in the series? Reference to the White Cross Atlas (page 41, sector F7) we have Birr Cross Roads Cemetery No. 1 as cemetery #172. Reference to a trench map tells us that is on the west side of Birr Cross Roads and on the south side of the road from Ypres to Hooge. There is another cemetery on the northeast corner labelled #829, perhaps just west of Outpost Farm. Looking that one up in the White Cross Index (not an easy job!) tells us that #820 is Hooge Crater Cemetery, Zillebeke. That is too far to the east. That cemetery is not on the DAL but there is one called "Honge Crater Cemetery, Zillebeke", so I suspect that is just a typo. It is marked as 28.I.18.a.7.9. There is an existing CWGC Hooge Crater Cemetery, which was started in October 1917, so it could not have had the graves from July 1917. We have a mystery cemetery!

• One of the burials in that "Small Cemetery" was an Unknown Second Lieutenant with a date of death of 12 August 1917 (COG-BR 2150723).
•  
• There are only two (2) Unknown Second Lieutenants in Belgium for that date (CWGC Link):
  • Winkworth, 7th Bn Sussex Regiment (see Alan's correct below - should be 8th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment)
  • Morgan, 11th Bn Cheshire Regiment
• I suspect in is Second Lieutenant Morgan, as there are no Sussex men in that cemetery (so that is wrong as well as there are eight (8) Suffolk's, although not 8th Bn) , and the five (5) known Cheshires (although 13th Bn) are all from August-September 1917. There are also five (5) unknown Cheshires, with a very strange reburial in August 1917, as shown on COG-BR 2150721. Private Ventress #50074 of the 13th Cheshores is buried in the same plot and row, exhumed from the same "Small Cemetery".

 

On COG-BR 2150729 we also find exhumations from the Gordon House Cemetery No. 1 at 28.I.16.b.2.4. There are five (5) pages with twenty (20) men. The closest I see to a match in the White Cross Atlas is Gordon Farm Cemetery, Zillebeke. Gordon House is marked on the trench map at about 28.I.16.b.3.3. Some of these are identified as they were marked by the burial location on a list. The last page appears to have numbers which may be from that list "460/59, 461/60 and 462/61".

 

On COG-BR 2150762 we find the Elverdinghe Chateau Cemetery at 28.B.14.b.3.5.

 

If anyone else ever notices any missing documents from ANY CEMETERY, please let me know and I will do my best to fetch them quickly.

[laughton]

Normally I may have gone by the Unknown Canadian Soldier with the initials A H on a mess tin. then I noticed that he was recovered at 28.O.2.b.2.7. That means it was a Canadian lost at the St. Eloi Craters in the period of 27 March 1916 to 16 April 1916. See COG-BR 2150780.

 

There was only one such man, Private Arthur Hudson #54233 of the 18th Bn., Canadian Infantry. He was killed in the trenches near St. Eloi on 12 April 1916 and reported buried in the Voormezeele Cemetery, 2 1/4 miles south of Ypres at 28.I.31.c.1.7. There is no cemetery by that name at that location, although the other Voormezeele Enclosures are close. His remains were not found during the battlefield clearances and thus he is named on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.

 

The location where he was supposedly buried is in the adjoining sector to where the remains were recovered. See map [Ypres] 28.

 

Twenty-five (25) men of that battalion are listed on the CWGC database for that same period. Seven (7) are in Enclosure No. 3 and two (2) in Enclosure No. 1. There are no COG-BR documents for those burials.

 

This is another one of those cases, many of which the CWGC has accepted in the past, where the identification could be made by means of a piece of equipment with numbers or initials. A person buried with a mess tin means to me it was a battlefield burial, not a cemetery burial. Was the mess tin really his or did he borrow it from his mate?

 

If I was his grandson, I would go pay the grave a visit, just in case!

 

COD-1

COD-2

E-13

 

Edited 8 December , 2019 by laughton
added COG-BR link

[laughton]

Notice: This case has been submitted by another to the CWGC. It is in the April 2019 list as Case No. 419.   I checked Norm Christie's book "Sacred Places: Volume 1 Belgium" and he too has it listed on page 43. That set off the alarm bells, as I had a list of Christie Cases that had not been acted upon at the time. That takes us back to April 2016 and this was posted to the CEFSG Forum: https://cefresearch.ca/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=13841   Someone must have come up with the answer as to why the remains of Private Parker could have been found outside the Canadian Zone. I would be interested in knowing the answer to that question. He is the last one on the list here (November 2016).

 

It must be the day for Canadians with initials, as now we have H D P of the 8th Bn, Canadian Infantry on COG-BR 2150790. He was found at 28.D.21.a.9.2 which is more or less on the road heading northwest out of Zonnebeke towards Winnipeg Corners at St. Julien. This is the front line area for Gravenstafel, which is precisely where the 8th Battalion was in action on 24 April 1915.

 

There is only one (1) HDP of the 8th Battalion killed in Belgium on the CWGC database. He is named on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial as Private H D Parker #734. He was reported MIA and then KIA at the attack at St. Julien. He had no known burial location. His date of death, the same, 24 April 1915.

 

The war diary of the 8th Battalion shows them in a sketch to be near Locality "C", the correct area as clearly marked on Nicholson Sketch 8. You will see it on the road leading northwest out of Gravenstafel.

 

The blue cloud of gas, along with heavy shell and machine gun fire fell upon the 8th Battalion that day. The war diary pages will need to be enhanced but you can read them.

 

 

Edited 9 December , 2019 by laughton
Added note at top: This has been submitted by another to CWGC.

[thetrenchrat22]

Richard, 

 

i've previously looked at this 

 

One of the burials in that "Small Cemetery" was an Unknown Second Lieutenant with a date of death of 12 August 1917 (COG-BR 2150723). There are only two (2) Unknown Second Lieutenants in Belgium for that date (CWGC Link):

Winkworth, 7th Bn Sussex Regiment

Morgan, 11th Bn Cheshire Regiment

I suspect in is Second Lieutenant Morgan, as there are no Sussex men in that cemetery 

 

Winkworth was actually 8th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, 

 

The 11th Cheshire's and 8th Suffolk's were both in the general area on the 12th August 1917, the 8th Suffolk's were in J. 13.d.9.8 to J,14.a.3.25 and the 11th Cheshire's in J.1.d.80.50 to J.8.a.40.95 

 

The only way this further is to look at their officers files. 

 

Alan 

[Retlaw]

Bir Cross Roads Cemetery contains the bodies of two Accrington Lads, one of whom was my uncle, he was one of the last two of the Original  Accrington Pals to be killed in action, 5 generations of my family have\ stood at his grave, from 1921 to 2017 and I have his original Pals Cap Bagde & his M.G.C, cap badge. The drawing is the cross his mates made for him, which was sent to his mother. The cross was still there when she first visited, along with Walters younger brother.

Edited 8 December , 2019 by Retlaw

[laughton]

4 hours ago, thetrenchrat22 said:

Winkworth was actually 8th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment,

 

Thanks for picking that up Alan! Don't know where my head was?

 

You have made it correct, it could be either one of the Lieutenants.

[laughton]

It would appear that cases have been submitted to the CWGC for Birr Cross Roads Cemetery, or alternatively have been evaluated and dropped. It is indeed unfortunate that we no longer have access to the updated CWGC case list index, as it is now difficult to check. The April 2019 list has only two identified:

1. Case No. 419 Private H. D. Parker #734 for grave 5.C.3 (see post #3 above - special notice added)
2. Case No. 508 Sapper George Austin Humphreys #3754 for grave 4.D.2

A third case has been submitted but I do not have the details. It must have been after the April 2019 list.

 

The case of the man of the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles (CMR) attached to a Canadian Machine Gun Company or Canadian Machine Gun Corps (CMG) was looked at by myself and other members of the CEFSG back in April 2016 but the case was not moved forward. It is noted on COG-BR 2150791.

 

The case of the Canadian with A H on the mess tin was not pursued previously, perhaps for the same reason I noted in post #2 above.

 

One case I thought someone might have picked up on was the Durham Light Infantry Lieutenant in grave 1.D.11 (COG-BR 2150797).

 

Perhaps someone has and I have forgotten the reference - that seems to be afflicting me. There were 46 lost in Belgium of which 20 have unknown graves (CWGC Link). There are 7 DLI known men buried in Birr Cross Roads Cemetery for various dates in the Great War (CWGC Link). Two of those men are in the same plot (1) and row (D) as the unknown Lieutenant for July and October 1917.