AIX-NOULETTE COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION

Aix-Noulette

Pas de Calais

France

 

GPS: 2.71331,50.43073

General Directions: Aix-Noulette is a village in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais, about 13 kilometres south of Bethune on the main road to Arras. From Arras take the D937 towards Bethune. At Aix-Noulette, turn right at the church. The Communal Cemetery and Extension are a few hundred metres on the left side of the road to Bully-Grenay.

The Cemetery Extension was begun by French troops early in 1915, and the two French plots are next to the Communal Cemetery. It was taken over by the 1st and 2nd Divisions in February, 1916, and used by fighting units and Field Ambulances until October, 1918. It was increased after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the battlefields to the East.

The extension was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens & Arthur James Scott Hutton

Shot at Dawn: 448160 Private G. Comte  22nd Bn. Canadian Infantry executed for desertion on 03/07/1917. Plot 1. F. 20

Shot at Dawn: 672604 Private J. La Lancette, 22nd Bn. Canadian Infantry, executed for desertion 03/07/1917. Plot 1. F. 21.

The mass pardon of 306 British Empire soldiers executed for certain offences during the Great War was enacted in section 359 of the Armed Forces Act 2006, which came into effect on royal assent on 8 November 2006.

Casualty Details: UK 257, Canada 492, France 502, Total Burials: 1251

 

G/14393 Private

Charles Leonard Bennett

9th Bn. Royal Sussex Regiment

12/04/1917 - 13/04/1917

aged 19.

Son of Samuel James and Mary Elizabeth Bennett, of 16, Prospect Row, Woolwich, London.

Plot I. A. 22.

 

This soldier was officially registered as Charles Leonard Bennett although his actual name was actually Leonard Charles Bennett. The reason for the change being that Leonard had been nicknamed ‘Elsie’ at school because of his initials. Not wishing to be known as ‘Elsie’ in the army, the enterprising lad turned his names around!

Because his elder brother Albert (my father) had joined up, he tried to enlist at the age of 16, but his fib was discovered and he was sent home. When he reached the correct age for enlistment, he joined the Royal Sussex, and was sadly killed near Arras in April 1917 at the age of 19.

Picture courtesy of his nephew, Derek Bennett

307709 Private

Thomas Grosse

1st/8th Bn. Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment)

23/06/1917, aged 33.

Plot I. F. 17.

Husband of Mrs I Grosse, of Newark
Thomas was one of three brothers to lay down their lives in the Great War
The other two are: Alfred, 02/05/1918, Aged 21 & Joseph, 02/12/1918, Aged 19
 

Picture courtesy of Pete Stevens

 

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