Chester Farm Cemetery Explained

Chester Farm
Body:Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Use Dates:1915–1917
Established:March 1915
Designer:Sir Edwin Lutyens
Coordinates:50.8217°N 2.9011°W[1]
Nearest Town:Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium
Total:424
Unknowns:9
By Country:Allied Powers

Central Powers

By War:World War I

424

Source:wo1.be and firstworldwar.com

Chester Farm is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front.

The cemetery grounds were assigned to the United Kingdom in perpetuity by the King of Belgium in recognition of the sacrifices made by the British Empire in the defence and liberation of Belgium during the war.

Foundation

Commonwealth troops began using the site as a cemetery in March 1915.[2] The cemetery is named after a nearby farm,[3] which was itself probably named by the 2nd Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment in 1915.[4]

The dead are mostly grouped by battalion.[5]

There are cenotaphs for six soldiers (five British and one Canadian) who are known or believed to be buried in the cemetery but whose actual plot was lost or destroyed. These stones usually have the Rudyard Kipling-derived footnote "Their glory shall not be blotted out".

Notable graves

The painter Ernest Stafford Carlos is buried here.[6] [7]

Notes and References

  1. http://www.wo1.be/ned/database/dbDetail.asp?subtypeID=19&typeid=6&ItemID=5695&lID=3 wo1.be
  2. http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/51402 Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry
  3. Duffy, Michael firstworldwar.com, 1 September 2002, accessed 17 February 2007
  4. Book: Reed, Paul . 1999 . Walking the Salient . Leo Cooper . 978-0850526172 . (Chapter 5)
  5. http://www.wo1.be/ned/database/dbDetail.asp?subtypeID=19&typeid=6&ItemID=5695&lID=3 wo1.be
  6. http://www.wo1.be/eng/database/personen/persDetail.asp?PersoonID=151 wo1.be
  7. http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/445843/CARLOS,%20ERNEST%20STAFFORD CWGC record