Jump to content
Free downloads from TNA ×
The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Bancourt British Cemetery


laughton

Recommended Posts

This was created as a result of someone looking for documents here:

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/247711-unknown-royal-scots/

 

I had not collected all the documents for that cemetery, but that is now complete:

 

I will go back and find the Trench Map Coordinates (TMC) for each of the concentration cemeteries or major burial grounds and add them to the CWGC description. Note also, this is one of those misleading cemeteries that says there are eleven (11) Canadians buried here. That is not true. Those men were all from Newfoundland, which was not part of Canada until 1948, so these are British Soldiers, or as a minimum Newfoundland Soldiers. It boggles my mind why the CWGC will not make the differentiation?

 

Quote

Bancourt was occupied by Commonwealth forces in March 1917. It was lost a year later during the German offensive in the spring of 1918, but recaptured by the New Zealand Division (in particular, the 2nd Auckland Battalion) on 30 August 1918.

 

The cemetery was begun by the New Zealand Division in September 1918; the original cemetery is now Plot I, Rows A and B.

 

The remainder of the cemetery was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields east and south of Bancourt and from certain Allied and German cemeteries, including:-

 

  • BAPAUME RESERVOIR GERMAN CEMETERY, on the Bapaume Beaulencourt road, containing the graves of twelve soldiers from the United Kingdom buried by a German Field Ambulance in March and April, 1918, and of seven others and three from New Zealand who fell at the end of August, 1918.
     
  • BAPAUME ROAD CEMETERY, BEAULENCOURT 57c.N.21.d.9.2, a500 metres South of the Beaulencourt-Gueudecourt road, containing the graves of 20 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in October, 1916.
     
  • BEAULENCOURT ROAD CEMETERIES, three in number, on the North-East side of Gueudecourt, containing the graves of 88 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in the autumn of 1916 or in April, 1917. (I added what I believe are the three cemeteries)
    • Beaulencourt British Cemetery, Ligny-Thilloy 57c.N.9.d.6.4
    • Beaulencourt German Cemetery 57c.N.11.d.1.4
    • Beaulencourt Road Cemetery 57c.N.21.d.8.3
       
  • CLOUDY TRENCH CEMETERY, GUEUDECOURT TMC?, containing the graves of 40 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in October or November, 1916. The five cemeteries last named were made by the 5th Australian Division in April, 1917.
     
  • FREMICOURT COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION 57c.I.26.a.7.7. This Extension was begun by the Germans, who buried in it 1,346 of their own soldiers and 136 officers and men from the United Kingdom who fell in March, 1918. It was taken over in September, 1918, by British and Dominion units, who used it for clearing the battlefields and for fresh burials, and added 94 graves. All the graves have now been removed to other cemeteries.
     
  • SUNKEN ROAD CEMETERY No. 2, LESBOEUFS 57c.N.28.d.5.5, between Gueudecourt and Le Transloy, made by the 5th Australian Division in April, 1917. It contained the graves of 49 soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Australia who fell in October, 1916. The great majority of these graves dated from the winter of 1916-1917, the retreat of March 1918, or the advance of August-September 1918.
     

Bancourt British Cemetery now contains 2,480 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 1,462 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 43 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and to one soldier buried in Bapaume Reservoir German Cemetery, whose grave could not be found on concentration. 

 

Others noted on the documents:

  • Beugnatre Communal Cemetery German Extension 57c.H.11.d.5.5
  • British Plot Frimicourt German Cemetery 57c.I.19.d.9.2 - a number of pages - odd that it is not on the CWGC list above?
  • British Plot Fremicourt German Cemetery 57c.I.26.a.7.7 - so which one is it?
Edited by laughton
updating details in stages
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@fetubi

 

There are three (3) SPEC-EXH documents that relate to airmen of 30 September 1916. One has a partial disc 3049.R, for which they even included a sketch!

http://archive.cloud.cwgc.org/archive/doc/doc1969265.JPG

 

CANCEL THAT - he was identified! 

 

https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/205501/clarkson,-albert/

 

fetubi-bancourt.jpg.ad50ad99287522f6a0498c0fe64b729b.jpg

 

Edited by laughton
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Possible Cases:

 

Others of Interest:

  • COG-BR 1969574Privates are not normal subjects but this one as 2 Good Conduct Badges, 2 Wound Stripes and a Mons Ribbon.
  • COG-BR 1969744: no Welsh Guards missing 3 April 1917 or any time close

 

A Challenging Question:

  • COG-BR 1969707: What does a Canadian know about locations in London, U.K.?
    • An Unknown British Soldier of the Rifle Brigade with an address "Kenmure" Downs Rd. Clapton, London
    • not much but it appears this fellow comes from Kenmure Road, which joins Mare Street on the east and Amhurst Road on the west
    • how would this relate to the location of Downs Road on the north perimeter of Hackney Downs?

 

... done

 

Lots of British and Australian OFFICERS mentioned but seldom the rank or any other details. Many of the men shown as UNKNOWN were later identified.

Edited by laughton
updating details in stages
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...