TOURNAI COMMUNAL CEMETERY ALLIED EXTENSION
Tournai
Hainaut
Belgium
GENERAL DIRECTIONS: The cemetery is located on the N508, Chaussee De Douai, a road which leads from the R523 Tournai ring road. 900m after leaving the R523 and joining the N508, lies a left turn onto the Chaussee De Willemeau. The cemetery is located at the end of this lane. Access and parking are easy, it should be noted that the cemetery can only be visited between the hours of 08.00 and 17.45, daily.
Captured by the German II Corps on the 23rd August 1914, Tournai remained in enemy hands until it was entered by the 47th (London) and 74th (Yeomanry) Divisions on the 8th November 1918.
After the armistice, the 51st (or Highland) Casualty Clearing Station set up here and remained in place until 20th July 1919. The (Southern) Communal Cemetery, in the Faubourg-St. Martin, was both used and extended by the Germans during their occupation. German casualties were nursed in the "Asile" and British and allied troops in the Hopital Notre-Dame. The earliest German burials were made in the Northern corner of the cemetery, the later, in the extension to the South-West; this was also where British burials after the armistice were located. It was later decided to regroup the German and allied dead by nationalities; and a part of the German extension then became the Allied or Western Extension.
British dead from a wide area around Tournai were also brought into this cemetery, as well as those from the northern corner of the cemetery.
CASUALTY DETAILS: UK 645; Canada 30; Australia 5; New Zealand 1; South Africa 5; India 3; Belgium 2; Russia 117; Total Burials: 808
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48570 Rifleman William Henry Skuse 1st/17th Bn. London Regiment Killed in action at Froyennes 08/11/1918 Originally buried in White Chateau Cemetery, Froyennes. Plot V. J. 2. |
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