RAILWAY DUGOUTS
BURIAL GROUND
(Transport Farm)
Ieper
West-Vlaanderen
Belgium
GENERAL DIRECTIONS: Leave Ieper through the Lille Gate, cross the ring road and head towards Armentieres and Lille (N365). The road name changes to Rijselseweg and there is a left turn after 1km into Kommenseweg, the cemetery can be found after just over a kilometre on the right hand side of the road.
Two kilometres to the west of the village of Zillebeke, the railway runs on an embankment, overlooking a small farmstead, known to the British as Transport Farm. A cemetery was started here in April 1915 and continued to be made until the armistice. The cemetery was heavily used in 1916 and 1917, when Advanced Dressing Stations were placed in the Dugouts which were built into the embankment, and the farm. Originally they were made in small groups in no specific order, and in 1917 a considerable number were destroyed by shellfire before they could be marked. The cemetery was commonly known by both the names Railway Dugouts and Transport Farm, and both these have been used in the present name. The cemetery was enlarged after the armistice, when graves from the surrounding battlefields were brought in, 258 known graves, which had been destroyed by enemy shells were also specially commemorated at this time.
Victoria Cross: Second Lieutenant Frederick Youens, VC, 13th Bn. Durham Light Infantry, died of wounds 07/07/1917, Plot 1. O. 3.
CASUALTY DETAILS:
UK 1660; Canada 636; Australia 154; New Zealand 3; India 4; Entirely Unidentified 2; Germany 4; Total Burials: 2463
Captain
Francis Egmont Gane
43rd Bn. Canadian Infantry
(Manitoba Regiment)
13/05/1916, aged 31.
Son of Francis Job and Belinda Gane, of The Willows, Normanby, Taranaki, New Zealand.
Plot IV. A. 3.
Picture courtesy of Michael Broad, his wife is the great niece of this officer
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