Meerut Military Cemetery, St. Martin-Les-Boulogne: Misdescription !

[MelPack]

The Meerut Cemetery at Boulogne exclusively consists of Indian Army burials save for 25 graves of members of the Egyptian Labour Corps (ELC).

Three of the graves date from May, June and August 1917 but 19 of the graves are from the ranks of 23 ELC members shot down on 6 September 1917 during a strike and protest about their contracts. The remaining 4 who were killed on that day are buried in the Boulogne Eastern Cemetery. The other three Meerut graves have dates in the weeks following 6 September with death possibly caused by wounds.

Meerut Cemetery ELC Casualties

The CWGC description of the Meerut Military Cemetery boldly states:

History information

The Meerut Stationary Hospital was established at Boulogne from October 1914, when the Indian Corps arrived in France, to November 1915, when they left; the Cemetery is named after the hospital. The majority of the Egyptian labourers buried here were killed in the air raid over Boulogne on the night of 4-5 September 1917. The cemetery contains 339 burials and commemorations of the First World War, including a memorial to 32 officers and men of the Indian Army, whose bodies were cremated in the cemetery in 1915. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

CWGC Cemetery Description

The Egyptian labourers were clearly not killed by enemy action during an air raid but shot down by their own side.

 Board member michaeldr raised this issue some eighteen years ago in the thread below but the error still persists: