BERNAFAY WOOD BRITISH CEMETERY
Montauban
Somme
France
General Directions: Bernafay Wood British Cemetery is in the Department of the Somme, 10 kilometres east of Albert and 2 kilometres south of Longueval on the D197, in the direction of Maricourt.
Montauban village was taken by the 30th and 18th Divisions on 1 July 1916 and it remained in Commonwealth hands until the end of March 1918. It was retaken on 25 August 1918 by the 7th Buffs and the 11th Royal Fusiliers of the 18th Division. The Bois De Bernafay is a pear-shaped wood close to the east end of Montauban village. It was taken on 3 and 4 July 1916 by the 9th (Scottish) Division. On 25 March 1918, in the retreat to the Ancre, the same Division was driven from the wood but recaptured it for a time. On 27 August 1918 it was finally regained by the 18th Division. The cemetery was begun by a dressing station in August 1916 and used as a front-line cemetery until the following April. It contained at the Armistice 284 burials but was then increased when graves were brought in from Bernafay Wood North Cemetery and from the battlefields immediately east of the wood.
Casualty Details: UK 814, Australia 124, New Zealand 2, South Africa 4, India 1, Total Burials: 945
14679 Private
Christopher Preston
17th Bn. Lancashire Fusiliers
22/07/1916
Plot I. 78.
Born in 1892 he was a resident of Preston, Lancashire
Picture courtesy of Cynthia Seymour
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