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Image above - Courtesy of WW1 Cemeteries
Image right - Vis-en-Artois Memorial - Courtesy of WW1 Cemeteries
Vis-en-Artois - Memorial and British Cemetery
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Vis-en-Artois and Haucourt were taken by the Canadian Corps on 27 August 1918. The cemetery started immediately afterwards, used by fighting units and field ambulances until the middle of October. It consisted originally of 430 graves (in Plots I and II) of which 297 were Canadian and 55 belonged to the 2nd Duke of Wellington's Regiment.
It was increased after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the battlefields of April-June 1917, August and September 1918, and from the smaller cemeteries in the neighbourhood, including:-
The Memorial consists of a screen wall in three parts. The middle part of the screen wall is concave and carries stone panels on which names are carved. It is 26 feet high flanked by pylons 70 feet high. The Stone of Remembrance stands exactly between the pylons and behind it, in the middle of the screen, is a group in relief representing St George and the Dragon. The flanking parts of the screen wall are also curved and carry stone panels carved with names. Each of them forms the back of a roofed colonnade; and at the far end of each is a small building.
The memorial was designed by J.R. Truelove, with sculpture by Ernest Gillick. It was unveiled by the Rt. Hon. Thomas Shaw on 4 August 1930.
Casualty Details: Identified = 9822
Victoria Cross Recipients
- Corporal Allan Leonard Lewis, VC. 6th Bn. Northamptonshire Regiment, 21st September 1918, aged 23. Panel 7.
- Chief Petty Officer George Prowse, VC., DCM. Drake Bn. Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. R. N. Division. 27th September 1918, aged 32. Panel 1 and 2.
- Sergeant Frederick Charles Riggs, VC., MM. 6th Bn. York and Lancaster Regiment, 1st October 1918, aged 29. Panel 9.*
Shot at Dawn
Private Frederick Charles Butcher, 7th Bn. The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), executed for desertion 27th August 1918, aged 23. Panel 3. Son of Mrs. E. Butcher, of 24A, Park St., Folkestone.
Bois-du-Sart British Cemetery, Pelves
... at the North-Western angle of the Bois-du-Sart, which contained the graves of ten soldiers and airmen from the United Kingdom and nine soldiers from Canada who fell in August and September 1918.
Dury German Cemetery
... which was on the South-East side of Dury village, a little South of the road to Saudemont. It contained the graves of four British and 49 German soldiers.
Ecourt-St.Quentin German Cemetery
... on the East side of the road to Lecluse. It contained the graves of 16 soldiers from the United Kingdom.
Etaing Communal Cemetery German Extension
...which contained the graves of six soldiers and airmen from the United Kingdom, who fell in 1917 and 1918, 331 German soldiers (including some who fell in August 1914), and two Russian prisoners.
Lecluse German Cemetery
... on the West side of the village, contained the graves of 476 German soldiers, eleven soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in 1917, and one Russian prisoner.
Monchy Quarry Cemetery
... which was in a quarry 800 metres South-East of Monchy-le-Preux. It contained the graves of 22 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in July 1917.
Pelves Canadian Cemetery
... nearly 1.6 kilometes due South of the village, contained the graves of 39 soldiers from Canada who fell in August and September 1918.
Pelves Communal Cemetery German Extension
... which contained the graves of two soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in 1917.
Rumaucourt German Cemetery
... on the Southern edge of the village, which contained the graves of 21 soldiers from the United Kingdom and six from Australia.
Sally-en-Ostrevent Communal Cemetery
... which was destroyed by shell-fire, contained the graves of three soldiers from the United Kingdom (two of which were recovered).
Vis-en-Artois Communal Cemetery German Extension
... which was very badly shelled, contained the graves of 621 German soldiers, 14 from the United Kingdom, eight French and five Russian.
The cemetery now contains 2,369 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 1,458 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to eight casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate four soldiers buried in other cemeteries whose graves could not be found on concentration.
Casualty Details: UK 1748, Canada 582, Australia 6, South Africa 2, Unidentified 4, Total Burials: 2342
The cemetery was designed by J R Truelove.
Vis-en-Artois memorial
The Memorial bears the names of over 9,000 men who fell in the period from 8 August 1918 to the date of the Armistice in the Advance to Victory in Picardy and Artois, between the Somme and Loos, and who have no known grave. They belonged to the forces of Great Britain and Ireland and South Africa; the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand forces being commemorated on other memorials to the missing.
The Memorial consists of a screen wall in three parts. The middle part of the screen wall is concave and carries stone panels on which names are carved. It is 26 feet high flanked by pylons 70 feet high. The Stone of Remembrance stands exactly between the pylons and behind it, in the middle of the screen, is a group in relief representing St George and the Dragon. The flanking parts of the screen wall are also curved and carry stone panels carved with names. Each of them forms the back of a roofed colonnade; and at the far end of each is a small building.
The memorial was designed by John Reginald Truelove., with sculpture by Ernest Gillick. It was unveiled by the Rt. Hon. Thomas Shaw on 4 August 1930.
Images above and right Courtesy of WW1 Cemeteries
Vis-en-Artois Communal Cemetery
... which contains one airman of WW1
- Second Lt. Roland Murray Wilson-Browne, Royal Flying Corps. 31st July 1916, aged 19. Son of Arthur Edward and Camilla Muriel Wilson Browne of Ravenscliffe, Sutton-Coldfield, Warwickshire
Sources and References
- http://www.ww1cemeteries.com/ww1frenchextension/visenartois.htm
- http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/2000088/VIS-EN-ARTOIS%...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vis-en-Artois_Memorial
- http://www.greatwar.co.uk/french-flanders-artois/vis-en-artois-memo...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vis-en-Artois_British_Cemetery,_Haucourt
- http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1995915
- http://www.remembrancetrails-northernfrance.com/trails/the-front/vi...