EUSTON ROAD CEMETERY
Colincamps
Somme
France
General Directions: Colincamps is a village 11 kilometres north of Albert. From Arras take the D919 in the direction of Amiens for 28 kilometres. The cemetery is situated about 1 kilometre from the D919 on the right hand side of the road. Pass Serre Road Cemetery No 2 and continue for 2 kilometres. Take the first right, and the CWGC direction sign to Euston Road Cemetery will be seen at the next Y junction.
Colincamps and "Euston", a road junction a little east of the village, were within the Allied lines before the Somme offensive of July 1916. The cemetery was started as a front line burial ground during and after the unsuccessful attack on Serre on 1 July, but after the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917 it was scarcely used. It was briefly in German hands towards the end of March 1918, when it marked the limit of the German advance, but the line was held and pushed forward by the New Zealand Division allowing the cemetery to be used again for burials in April and May 1918. The cemetery is particularly associated with three dates and engagements; the attack on Serre on 1 July 1916; the capture of Beaumont-Hamel on 13 November 1916; and the German attack on the 3rd New Zealand (Rifle) Brigade trenches before Colincamps on 5 April 1918. The whole of Plot I, except five graves in the last row, represents the original cemetery of 501 graves. After the Armistice, more than 750 graves were brought in from small cemeteries in the neighbouring communes and the battlefields.
Casualty Details: UK 960. Canada 4, Australia 26, New Zealand 302, India 1, Total Burials: 1293
12/661 Private
Sam Halkyard
12th Bn. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
01/07/1916, aged 33.
Son of Elizabeth Halkyard, of I, Rochdale Rd., Royton, Oldham, and the late William Halkyard.
Plot I. B. 6.
Picture courtesy of Christine Hobson, his granddaughter
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