an example of a regimental cemetery,

[larneman]

Reading john w. answer to another message in this section of the forum, I then visited his website at www.stock.org.uk and looked for the war memorial button.

While viewing the enteries this passage took my eye,

"This cemetery was established beside a building known as Essex House and is an example of a regimental cemetery, many of which were made in 1914 and 1915. It was begun in November 1914 by the 2nd Essex and 2nd Monmouthshire Regiments."

Did the different cemeteries have different layouts during the war. I always had the idea that the layouts were made after the war by the CWGC.

Any ideas...

What exactly is a regimental cemetery?

Liam

[Michelle Young]

Hi Liam

I have always thought that these were plots made by individual regiments, and after the war, they were sometimes added to by concentrations. Often, more than one regiment used the burial ground, but in separate plots. Examples of these tye of cemeteries are Calvaire (Essex) Cemetery, Elzenwalle Braserie Cemetery and Ploegsteert Wood Cemetery.

Quite often you will see in the bigger concentration cemeteries, plot 1 is the original wartime cemetery. I always make a point of checking out plot 1 in the larger concentrations. It is more often than not made of irregular rows, at an angle or such like, in contrast to the neat rows of 10.

Sorry to ramble on

Cheers, Michelle

PS I'm sure Terry Denham could have explained this a lot more eloquently!

[bartbandyrfc]

Liam,

There is an excellent description of the various types of cemetaries in Norm Christies "The Canadians at the Somme", published by CEF Books. A simple description of his more eloquent wrtiting is as follows:

During the war there were several kinds of cemetaries that were initially started by the Army and later fell into IWGC and CWGC care.

Casualty Clearing Station cemetaries were right beside a CCS and were laid out on the spot. The Army simply did not have the time to do a careful and planned job of laying out the gravesites in neat orderly rows. It's my understanding that regimental cemetaries follow the same kind of principle and are often not very orderly. Many of the CCS and regimental cemetaries and gravesites were relocated after the war. Essex Farm cemetary and Ramparts Cemetary are two of these types that can still be seen today.

Many of the graves that were relocated from CCS or regimental cemetaries during the 1920s were relocated to the large "Battlefield Clearance" cemetaries in France and Flanders. Tyne Cot, Hooge and Bedford House are three large Battlefield Clearance Cemetaries. The are generally very geometric and well planned out because many of the burials were made after the war when time was more plentiful and people weren't shooting at the gravediggers.

If you look at an aeriel shot of Tyne Cot Cemetary (Maj and Mrs Holt's "Ypres Salient" has an aeriel shot on the inside flyleaf) you can see the difference between a battlefield clearance cemetary and a CCS cemetary all contained within the cemetary boundary. In plot one surrounding the memorial cross the graves are scattered about willy-nilly with no apperent design or function. This is because these plots were made when the Australiens used the area as a CCS cemetary. The aid station was the bunker that now rests beneath the memorial cross. The rest of the cemetary is laid out with surveyer's precision, very orderly and well designed. It's striking to see the difference.

Regards,

Jim