MOEUVRES COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
Moeuvres
Nord
France
General Directions: Moeuvres is a village 10 kilometres west of Cambrai and 2 kilometres north of the main Cambrai to Bapaume road (N30). The Communal Cemetery can be found just outside the village on the D34A road towards Inchy en Artois, and the Extension lies alongside it.
Moeuvres remained in German hands during the Battle of Cambrai, 1917, in spite of three days of desperate attack by the 36th (Ulster) Division. It was partly taken by the 57th (West Lancashire) Division on 11 September 1918 and cleared by the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division on the 19th. The communal cemetery was extended to the west by the Germans between November 1917 and March 1918. The British Extension, was made between September and October 1918 and was enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields on the Cambrai-Bapaume road.
The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens & George Hartley Goldsmith
Victoria Cross:
CHARLES POPE
Rank: Lieutenant, Date of Death: 15/04/1917, Age: 34, Regiment/Service: Australian Infantry, A.I.F. 11th Bn. , Awards: V C, Grave Reference V. D. 22.
Citation: An extract from "The London Gazette," dated 8th June, 1917, records the following:-"For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty when in command of a very important picquet post in the sector held by his battalion, his orders being to hold this post at all costs. After the picquet post had been heavily attacked, the enemy, in greatly superior numbers, surrounded the post. Lt. Pope, finding that he was running short of ammunition, sent back for further supplies. But the situation culminated before it could arrive, and in the hope of saving the position, this very gallant officer was seen to charge with his picquet into a superior force, by which it was overpowered. By his sacrifice Lt. Pope not only inflicted heavy loss on the enemy, but obeyed his order to hold the position to the last. His body, together with those of most of his men, was found in close proximity to eighty enemy dead, a sure proof of the gallant resistance which had been made."
Casualty Details: UK 535, Canada 22, Australia 8, Total Burials: 585
628567 Lance Corporal
James Mckinley Nixon, MM
47th Bn. Canadian Infantry
(Western Ontario Regiment)
26/09/1918, aged 20.
Son of James and Jane Nixon, of Star City, Michigan, U.S.A.
Plot I. A. 14.
Picture courtesy of Tracie Nixon, grand-niece of this soldier
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