Remembered Today

[Malcolm]

Surname COWIE

Firstname John

Service number 98512

Date of death 06/06/1917

Decoration

Place of birth New Machar Aberdeen

Other

SNWM roll ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY

Rank Gnr

Theatre of death F.& F.

CWGC

Name: COWIE

Initials: J

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Gunner

Regiment: Royal Garrison Artillery

Unit Text: 109th Siege Bty.

Age: 26

Date of Death: 06/06/1917

Service No: 98512

Additional information: Son of Peter and Annie Cowie, of Broadtack, Newmachar, Aberdeenshire.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: IV. H. 7.

Cemetery: FAUBOURG D'AMIENS CEMETERY, ARRAS

Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery is in the western part of the town of Arras in the Boulevard du General de Gaulle, near the Citadel, approximately 2 kilometres due west of the railway station.

Historical Information: The French handed over Arras to Commonwealth forces in the spring of 1916 and the system of tunnels upon which the town is built were used and developed in preparation for the major offensive planned for April 1917. The Commonwealth section of the FAUBOURG D'AMIENS CEMETERY was begun in March 1916, behind the French military cemetery established earlier. It continued to be used by field ambulances and fighting units until November 1918. The cemetery was enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields and from two smaller cemeteries in the vicinity. The cemetery contains 2,650 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. There are 10 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War. In addition, there are 30 war graves of other nationalities, most of them German. The graves in the French military cemetery were removed after the war to other burial grounds and the land they had occupied was used for the construction of the Arras Memorial and Arras Flying Services Memorial. The ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918. Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A separate memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. The ARRAS FLYING SERVICES MEMORIAL commemorates more than 1,000 airmen of the Royal Naval Air Service, the Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Air Force, either by attachment from other arms of the forces of the Commonwealth or by original enlistment, who were killed on the whole Western Front and who have no known grave. During the Second World War, Arras was occupied by United Kingdom forces headquarters until the town was evacuated on 23 May 1940. Arras then remained in German hands until retaken by Commonwealth and Free French forces on 1 September 1944. The cemetery contains seven Commonwealth burials of the Second World War. Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick. The 1939-1945 War burials number 8 and comprise 3 soldiers and 4 airmen from the United Kingdom and 1 entirely unidentified casuatly. Located between the 2 special memorials of the 1914-1918 War is the special memorial commemorating an officer of the United States Army Air Force, who died during the 1939-1945 War. This special memorial, Type B, is inscribed with the words "Believed to be buried in this cemetery".

No. of Identified Casualties: 2670

Aye

Malcolm