PONT-DU-HEM MILITARY CEMETERY
La Gorgue
Nord
France
General Directions: Pont du Hem is a hamlet situated on the main road from La Bassee to Estaires. Follow the D 947 from La Bassee to Estaires for 10 kilometres and the cemetery lies on the left hand side of the road 5 kilometres short of Estaires.
Pont-du-Hem was in German hands from mid-April to mid-September, 1918. The Cemetery was begun, in an apple-orchard, in July, 1915, and used until April, 1918, by fighting units and Field Ambulances; these original burials are in Plots I, II and III, and Rows A and B of Plot IV. In April and May, 1918, German burials were made in Plots III and IV. After the Armistice, 426 German graves were removed to other cemeteries; 1st Portuguese graves of 1917-1918 were removed to the Portuguese cemetery of Richebourg-l'Avoue; and British graves were brought in from smaller burial grounds and from the surrounding battlefields.
The following are the burial grounds from which British graves were moved to Pont-du-Hem: Beaucamps Communal Cemetery German Extension. Bousbecque Communal Cemetery German Extension. Comines Communal Cemetery German Extension. Devasier Farm German Cemetery, Wambrechies, on the road to Quesnoy-sur-Deule. Edward Road Cemetery No. 3 (Windy Corner), Richebourg-l'Avoue. Ennequin Communal Cemetery German Extension, Loos (near Lille). Estaires Convent Cemeteries No. 1 and No. 2, made by Germans, on North side of town. Ferme Deloux-Boquet, Nouveaumonde, La Gorgue. Festubert North Cemetery, on North-West side of village.
Halluin Communal Cemetery German Extension. Indian Village Graveyards No. 1 and No. 2, Richebourg-l'Avoue and Festubert, North of Rue de Cailloux. La Cordonerrie Farm Cemetery, North of Fromelles. Lacouture Churchyard. La Fosse German Cemetery, in a chateau garden South of Lestrem. Laventie North German Cemetery, near railway station. Le Trou-Bayard German Cemetery, Estaires: Locon Churchyard. Rue Masselot German Cemetery (made round the British Cemetery, and called by the Germans Wangerie. Verlinghem German Cemetery, on South-West outskirts of village Vieille-Chapelle Churchyard.
Casualty Details: UK 1583, Canada 24, Australia 39, New Zealand 40, India 25, Germany 114, Total Burials: 1819
Buried within this cemetery:
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Private S/3339 Archie Kay 7th Bn. Seaforth Highlanders Killed in action 01/07/1915, aged 33 Husband of Harriet Kay, of 1, Baillie's Lane, Airdrie, Lanarkshire. Plot VI. E. 21
Image courtesy of Joe O'Raw and William Kilgour |
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