LONSDALE CEMETERY

Authuille

Somme

France

General Directions: Authuille is a village 5 kilometres north of the town of Albert on the D151 road to Grandcourt. The Cemetery (signposted in the centre of Authille) is 1 kilometre east of the village. Access to the cemetery, 500 metres from the road, is by a grass pathway (unsuitable for cars). 

On 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the 32nd Division, which included the 1st Dorsets and the 11th (Lonsdale) Battalion of the Border Regt attacked the German line at this point and stormed the Leipzig Salient, but were compelled to retire later in the day. In the spring of 1917, after the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, V Corps cleared these battlefields and made a number of new cemeteries, including Lonsdale No. 1 and No. 2. Lonsdale Cemetery No. 1 (the present Lonsdale Cemetery) contained originally 96 graves (now in Plot I), the great majority of which were those of officers and men of the 1st Dorsets and the 11th Borders. It was enlarged after the Armistice when graves, almost all of 1916, were brought in from the surrounding battlefields and from other small burial grounds, including Lonsdale Cemetery No. 2.

Victoria Cross: Serjeant, James Youll Turnbull, VC. 17th Bn. Highland Light Infantry, killed in action 01/07/1916, plot IV. G. 9.

Casualty Details: UK 1538, Australia 4, Germany 1, Total Burials: 1543

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