Nine Elms Military Cemetery, Thelus, Pas de Calais, France

NINE ELMS MILITARY CEMETERY

Thelus

Pas de Calais

France

General Directions: Thelus is a village about 6.5 kilometres north of Arras and 1 kilometre east of the main road from Arras to Lens. The cemetery is on the western side of the main road and about 1.5 kilometres south of the village.

"Nine Elms" was the name given by the Army to a group of trees 460 metres East of the Arras-Lens main road, between Thelus and Roclincourt. The cemetery was begun, after the capture of Vimy Ridge, by the burial in what is now Plot I, Row A of 80 men of the 14th Canadian Infantry Battalion, who fell on the 9th April, 1917; and this and the next row were filled by June, 1917. Three burials were made in Plot I, Row C, in July, 1918. The rest of the cemetery was made after the Armistice by the concentration of British and French graves from the battlefields of Vimy and Neuville-St. Vaast and from certain small cemeteries.

The great majority of the British graves are of April, 1917; the French are of 1914 and 1915. 177 French graves have been removed to other cemeteries. The following were among the burial grounds from which British graves were moved to Nine Elms Military Cemetery:- Arras Road Cemetery, Thelus,(CA39)* on the roadside a little North of Nine Elms Cemetery. This cemetery originally contained the graves of 46 Canadian soldiers, 39 of whom belonged to the 15th Battalion, and most of whom fell on the 9th April, 1917. ( CA 26)*, Roclincourt, by the roadside a little South of Nine Elms Cemetery, in which were buried 72 Canadian soldiers of the 5th Battalion who fell on the 9th April, 1917. (CA 35)*, Neuville-St. Vaast, 914 metres West of Nine Elms Cemetery, in which were buried 23 Canadian soldiers of the 15th Battalion who fell on the 9th April, 1917. ( CA 40)*, Thelus, 274 metres West of the main road, by the light railway track. Here were buried 44 Canadian soldiers of the 16th Battalion who fell on the 9th April, 1917. ( CB10)*, Thelus, 274 metres South-West of the hamlet of Les Tilleuls, in which were buried 52 Canadian soldiers and two from the United Kingdom who fell in April and May, 1917. ( CC 3)*, Vimy, just South of the highest point of the Ridge, in which were buried 58 Canadian soldiers who fell on the 9th and 10th April, 1917. Roclincourt Square Cemetery (or Roclincourt Forward Cemetery No. 5), 1 kilometre North of the village of Roclincourt, containing the graves of 23 soldiers of the 51st (Highland) Division who fell on the 9th April, 1917. Seaforth Grave, Roclincourt (or Roclincourt Forward Cemetery No. 4), a little North-West of the Square Cemetery. Here were buried twelve N.C.O'S. and men of the 114th Seaforth Highlanders who fell on the 9th April, 1917.

Further Information: * On many occasions burial plots administered by the Canadian Burial Officer were given a serial number as opposed to a name, these are shown here and marked with an asterisk.

Casualty Details: UK 155, Canada 529, France 54, Total Burials: 684