METZ-EN-COUTURE COMMUNAL CEMETERY BRITISH EXTENSION
Metz-en-Couture
Pas de Calais
France
General Directions: Metz-en-Couture is a village situated in the extreme south-eastern corner of the Department of the Pas-de-Calais. The British Extension is next to the Communal Cemetery and lies adjacent to the D29B, 2 kilometres east of the village travelling in the direction of Gouzeaucourt.
The village was captured by the 10th and 11th King's Royal Rifle Corps on the 4th and 5th April, 1917, evacuated on the 23rd March, 1918, and retaken by the 1st Otago Regiment on the following 6th September. It was noted for its extensive system of underground cellars. It was later "adopted" by the County Borough of Halifax. The Communal Cemetery was used by the enemy for the burial of German soldiers and also of three Royal Flying Corps Officers, whose graves have now been removed to the British Extension. On the East side of it a German Extension was made containing the graves of 252 German soldiers and one man of the Chinese Labour Corps; the German graves have now been removed to other cemeteries and the Chinese grave to the British Extension. The British Extension was begun in April, 1917, and used until March, 1918, and two graves were added in the following September. These original burials, made by Field Ambulances and fighting units, are in Plots I and II; Plots III and IV were added after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the immediate neighbourhood. Metz-en-Couture British Cemetery No. 2 was on the West side of the village, a little South of the road to Ruyaulcourt. It contained the graves of 35 soldiers from the United Kingdom, mainly of the 58th (London) and 47th (London) Divisions, who fell in 1917 and 1918.
Victoria Cross: Captain, George Henry Tatham, Paton, VC, MC, of the 4th Bn. Grenadier Guards, killed 01/12/1917 and buried in plot II.E.24.
Casualty Details: UK 422, Canada 1, Australia 1, New Zealand 43, South Africa 7, Germany 12, Total Burials: 486
R/15563 Rifleman
William Hadfield
11th Bn. King's Royal Rifle Corps.
04/04/1917, aged 19.
Son of Mr. Thomas W. Hadfield, of 11, St. Stephens Rd., Blackburn, Lancs.
Plot III. B. 4.
Picture courtesy of Evelyn Swain, William Hadfield's niece.
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