Suffolk Cemetery Explained

Suffolk
Body:Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Use Dates:1915–1918
Established:1915
Designer:J R Truelove
Coordinates:50.8036°N 2.8442°W
Nearest Town:Heuvelland, West Flanders, Belgium
Total:47
Unknowns:8
By Country:Allied Powers
  • United Kingdom 47
By War:World War I

47

Source:WW1Cemeteries.com and CWGC

Suffolk Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in Kemmel in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front.

The cemetery grounds were assigned to the United Kingdom in perpetuity by King Albert I of Belgium in recognition of the sacrifices made by the British Empire in the defence and liberation of Belgium during the war.[1]

Foundation

The cemetery was founded by Commonwealth troops in March and April 1915. It was then disused, except for one 1917 burial, until October 1918.[2]

The cemetery was founded under the name "Cheapside Cemetery" by the Suffolk Regiment. The October 1918 burials were of soldiers from the York and Lancaster Regiment who had been killed the previous April.[3]

The cemetery was designed by J R Truelove who also worked on the Tyne Cot memorial to the missing.[4]

Notes and References

  1. http://www.webmatters.net/belgium/ww1_friedhof_vladslo.htm First World War
  2. http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/52501 Commonwealth War Graves Commission
  3. http://www.ww1cemeteries.com/ww1cemeteries/suffolkcemetery.htm WW1Cemeteries.com
  4. Fry, Michèle Counter-Attack "First World War Memorials & Cemeteries as Symbolic Landscapes in France and Belgium", 2000, accessed 28 December 2007