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CWGC: Grevillers British Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

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  • Via Cenotaph.
    Cpl. Charles Grant Murdoch (1894 - 1918)
    Charles Grant Murdoch was the son of Alexander Grant Murdoch and Hellen Murdoch, of Omaka, Blenheim, New Zealand. Died of wounds, No. 3 Field Ambulance (Advanced Dressing Station), France. Sources ...
  • Arthur Frederick King (1894 - 1918)
    Private in CIR, file number 58545. Son of William and Julia King, of 100, Carlyle St., Sydenham, Christchurch== Sources ==# New Zealand and World War One Roll of Honour: / Ref 11.4.2021
  • Image source: Lives of the First World War.
    Gnr. Joseph Heward Mansell (1888 - 1918)
    Joseph Mansell was the son of Alfred Edward Mansell (1859-1919) and Martha Alice Mansell (nee Coard) (1864-1917), of Whangae, New Zealand. Gunner in NZFA, file number 50555. Sources Cenotaph: New...
  • New Zealand War Graves Project.
    Ftr. Alfred George Crosswell (1894 - 1918)
    Alfred George Crosswell was the son of Alfred Crosswell (1863-1960) and Theresa Crosswell (nee Hurrell) (1859-1938) of 40a Moreau Street in St Kilda, Dunedin, New Zealand. Fitter. Killed in action, Hav...
  • 2nd Lieut. George Henry Lury (1897 - 1918)
    Son of Peter and Janne Lury, of Whakatane, Bay of Plenty, late of Auckland, New Zealand. Senior Cadet, whilst attending Auckland Grammar School. 2/Lieutenant in AIR, file number 12/2021. Also served at...

The village of Grevillers was occupied by Commonwealth troops on 14 March 1917 and in April and May, the 3rd, 29th and 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Stations were posted nearby. They began the cemetery and continued to use it until March 1918, when Grevillers was lost to the German during their great advance. On the following 24 August, the New Zealand Division recaptured Grevillers and in September, the 34th, 49th and 56th Casualty Clearing Stations came to the village and used the cemetery again. After the Armistice, 200 graves were brought in from the battlefields to the south of the village, and 40 from an adjoining cemetery made during the German occupation, which no longer exists.

Image right By Wernervc - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

There are now 2,106 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in GREVILLERS BRITISH CEMETERY. 189 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 18 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of two casualties, buried in Avesnes-les-Bapaume German Cemetery, whose graves could not be found. The cemetery also contains the graves of seven Second World War airmen, and 18 French war graves.

Within the cemetery stands the GREVILLERS (NEW ZEALAND) MEMORIAL which commemorates almost 450 officers and men of the New Zealand Division who died in the defensive fighting in the area from March to August 1918, and in the Advance to Victory between 8 August and 11 November 1918, and who have no known grave.

This is one of seven memorials in France and Belgium to those New Zealand soldiers who died on the Western Front and whose graves are not known. The memorials are all in cemeteries chosen as appropriate to the fighting in which the men died.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

Source: http://www.nzwargraves.org.nz/cemeteries/grevillers-british-cemetery