Boezinge Churchyard
- Admin
- 15 hours ago
- 3 min read
Boezinge Churchyard contains one burial of the First World War.
Captain Edward Frederick Maltby Urquhart, commanding ‘A’ Company, 1st Battalion Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), 1st Infantry Brigade, 1st Division. Killed in action 23 October 1914, age 37. Grave I.A.1. He was the only son of Reverend Edward William Urquhart. He was educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was gazetted Second Lieutenant in February 1897 and joined the Black Watch and promoted to Lieutenant in May 1899, and to Captain in 1902. He served in the South African war. From 1906 to 1907 he was Assistant Superintendent of Gymnasia, Irish Command, and Superintendent from 1907 to 1910, and then went to India, where he was in 1913, when he was Inspector of Physical Training, Northern Army. He was at home on sick leave when war broke out and requested to join the 1st Battalion but this was refused on the grounds that he had an important staff appointment in India. The Marquess of Tullibardine then applied for and obtained his services to train the Scottish Horse at Scone, Perthshire. On the 22 September 1914, he was ordered to embark at Southampton and he went to France joining the 1st Battalion.
On the 22 October 1914 the Cameron Highlanders, from the 1st Brigade, were acting as flank guards to the French and they had posted a strong guard in the Kortekeer Cabaret area, a small inn at the crossroads on the Langemarck – Bixschoote road. This was coming under increasing pressure from German attacks and the Cameron Highlanders and a detail of Coldstream Guards were overrun. The 1st Battalion Black Watch, leaving their ‘C’ Company as a small defensive picket, set off to restore the situation at the crossroads. ‘A’ Company commanded by Edward, and including Lieutenant Charles Lindsay Claude Bowes-Lyon who was a cousin of the late Queen Mother, and supported by dismounted French cyclists took up positions along the Steenbeek and dug in. On the 23rd October 2nd Brigade counter-attacked and re-took Kortekeer Cabaret. In the early hours of the 24th October the Germans mounted numerous counter-attacks which were repulsed with heavy losses on both sides. On the evening of the 24th October the Black Watch were relieved by French troops and headed back to the Pilkem area taking the bodies of Lieutenant Bowes-Lyon and Captain Edward Urquhart with them. They were both buried in the Boesinghe Churchyard. Boesinghe Churchyard was subjected to heavy shelling and many graves lost however, the remains of both these men were identified after the war. Both families were contacted and asked if they would like the bodies to remain in the churchyard or transferred to a war cemetery. Captain Urquhart’s next of kin chose the churchyard and Lieutenant Bowes-Lyon’s next of kin chose the war cemetery. He was reburied in New Irish House Cemetery.
Location
Boezinge is a village 7 kilometres north-west of Ieper, astride the road to Diksmuide.
The churchyard is in the centre of the village, on the south side of the main road.
Burials
Boezinge Churchyard contains a small plot of 15 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, one of which is unidentified. There is also one burial of the First World War in the same plot.
UK – 1
The British Expeditionary Force was involved in the later stages of the defence of Belgium following the German invasion in May 1940, and suffered many casualties in covering the withdrawal to Dunkirk.
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