Vieille-Chapelle New Military Cemetery, Lacouture

[laughton]

This is a spin-off from Mark's topic here: Vieille Chapelle Old Military Cemetery As I noted there " It will tie in nicely with the case of Serjeant Wood of the King's (Liverpool Regiment). I just might find some of the others there!".

 

I will put the documents I recover on the shared MediaFire site here: (the GRRF and COG-BR will be hyperlinked once the documents are collected)

• Vieille-Chapelle New Military Cemetery, Lacouture - Shared MediaFire site
  • GRRF 2058731-2058800
    • 731-733 are SPEC-EXH documents
    • 703-706 are not for this cemetery, I will clean that up
    • the files are not sequential, so they may all be here
  • COG-BR 2629592-2629925
  • OTHER 2521798-2521810

This was an odd cemetery with scattered documents, so I am sure I do not have all of them yet. Will do some more checking! In particular, there do not seem to be enough GRRF documents. There is also a folder "OTHER" which relates to documents from concentrated cemeteries. King's Liverpool was obviously a planned cemetery that had documentation prior to it being concentrated.

 

Here is what the CWGC has to say about the cemetery. I will add the TMC (Trench Map Coordinates) from the DAL or COG-BR for the cemeteries of concentration as soon as I find them! Done, they were all on the DAL, so that was easy.

 

Quote

The Old Military Cemetery (now removed) was closed in November 1915, as being too near the school; and the New Military Cemetery was begun in that month and used by fighting units and Field Ambulances until March 1918. The village and the cemetery fell into German hands in the following month, in the Battles of the Lys; but in September 1918, on the German retirement, some further burials took place. These original graves are in Plot I and Plot IV, Rows A and B. The remainder of the cemetery was made after the Armistice, by the concentration of British, Indian and Portuguese graves from the neighbouring battlefields and from other cemeteries; but the Portuguese graves were removed to Richebourg-L'Avoue Portuguese National Cemetery in 1925, and three German prisoners graves have also been removed.

 

The following were among the burial grounds from which graves were taken to this cemetery:-

 

• BOUT-DE-VILLE GERMAN CEMETERY, RICHEBOURG-ST. VAAST 36a.R.24.a.2.6, 19 kilometres North-East of Vieille-Chapelle, where five soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried by the enemy in April 1918 and 28 by their comrades in September and October 1918.
   
• KING's LIVERPOOL GRAVEYARD, CUINCHY 36c.A.14.a.85.90, situated among houses on the West side of the Festubert-Cambrin road, opposite Givenchy. It contained the graves of 170 soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Canada, almost all of whom fell in 1915 or 1918; it was begun by the 1st King's in February 1915, and used by the 55th Division in April 1918.
   
• LOCON OLD MILITARY CEMETERY 36a.X.7.b.4.2, 228 metres East of the village, used in June 1915 and containing the graves of ten soldiers from the United Kingdom.
   
• LOCON NEW MILITARY CEMETERY 36a.X.7.a.2.6, begun by the 38th (Welch) Division in September 1915 and used in 1916 and 1918; it contained the graves of 30 soldiers from the United Kingdom, and it was 365 metres West of the village on the road to Merville.
   
• RICHEBOURG-ST. VAAST CHURCHYARD 36.S.2.a.2.1, where four soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in 1915.
   
• ROUGE-CROIX, RICHEBOURG-ST. VAAST 36.M.27.a.9.8, a hamlet at the crossing of the Rue-du-Bacquerot and the Estaires-La Bassee road. Here were buried 24 men of the 2nd East Lancs, who fell on the 14th March 1915, and two unknown gunners.
   
• ROYAL BERKS CEMETERY, CUINCHY 36c.A.21.a.5.6, 182 metres South-West of Cuinchy Church. Here were buried, in 1915, 53 soldiers from the United Kingdom, of whom 34 belonged to the 1st Royal Berks, and one German prisoner in 1917.
   

There are now nearly 1,000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Almost all fell in 1914, 1915 or 1918, and most of those who fell in 1918 belonged to the 55th (West Lancashire) Division. Of these, over one-third are unidentified and special memorials are erected to five soldiers from the United Kingdom, believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of nine soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

 

Noticed in COG-BR documents but not on CWGC list:

• COG-BR 2629626: Harrow Road Corner Cemetery 36.M.26.A.57.70
  • 30 men of the 2nd Battalion Royal Scots, 14-15 October 1914
  • quite significant to be left off the CWGC list?

Edited 29 March , 2020 by laughton

[laughton]

Some possible cases: (I have not yet checked details, such as whether they were already named)

• COG-BR 2629640: This seems to be too obvious to be overlooked! 
  • Captain Ker attached 1st Gordon Highlanders is known to be buried here with three (3) other men of the regiment in October 1914
  • his date of death was 14 October 1914
  • there are three (3) men with of the same unit on the Le Touret Memorial for that date
    • Private Hugh McDonald #9100
    • Private John Armstrong #1995
    • Private Charles Birnie #1220
  • the CWGC would not accept that as there are others on the 13th and 15th
  • there was also a Northumberland Fusilier with them but there are ten (10) of them of the 1st Bn on the memorial (CWGC Link)
• COG-BR 2629622: @fetubi an Unknown Serjeant of the Royal Air Force found at 36a.K.36.A.10.40 (near Estaires)
  • twenty (2) of the Arras Flying Services Memorial June-October 1918
  • I think the "ditto marks" are just for the cross on the grave and not the date
• COG-BR 2629664: @fetubi an Unknown Officer of the Royal Air Force found at 36a.R.15.b.7.?
  • another one on the same page found at 36a.R.22.c.1.2
  • he has a date of 3 May 1918, for which there are six (6) candidates on the AFSM
• COG-BR 2629667: a Lance Corporal of the Cyclist Corps
  • there is one (1) on the Arras Memorial for March 1918
    • Lance Corporal George Lumley #20888, XIX Corps Cyclist Battalion, Army Cyclists Corps
    • Wikipedia has a 19th Cyclist Battalion Corp Troops?
  • but could it be one of the two (2) on the Le Touret Memorial for March 1915 - same unit so could not separate them
    • listed LLT 8th Divisional Mounted Troops
      • Lance Corporal James Henry Barnes #1385, 8th Divisional Cyclist Coy., Army Cyclist Corps
      • Lance Corporal William Fantham #1343, 8th Divisional Cyclist Coy., Army Cyclist Corps
  • checking which units were in the area of 36a.R.26.d should answer that question!
  • just west of Ville Chapelle - no known cyclists in this cemetery
  • I surrender - cannot find the Cyclist War Diaries for these units
    • no 8th Division under the Army Cyclist Corps list
    • no XIX Corps either, although it is known to exist
• COG-BR 2629676: @fetubi there is a problem with this one as there was no Royal Air Force on 28 May 1915
  • there is nobody missing, in fact no deaths, on that date in the air services
  • if it was meant to be 1918 then there are four (4) missing
  • only one (1) of those is a Second Lieutenant (Craib 65th Sqdn)

 

There are a lot of UNKNOWN men of the Durham Light Infantry in this cemetery! Maybe they are all here!

 

@Chris_Baker I did not see this on the LLT list of acronyms - any idea what C.P.S.G. means?

• COG-BR 2629742 and those that follow - reported by 733 Labour Company

Edited 29 March , 2020 by laughton
updating details in stages

[fetubi]

Richard,

A huge thanks once more - I've not found any of the above, that you've mentioned for my attention.

Bravo.

 

Trevor