Brandhoek New Military Cemetery No.3
- Admin
- Mar 15, 2021
- 10 min read
Updated: Jun 8
As the New Military Cemetery became full this cemetery was opened and was in use until May 1918. It was used by the various Casualty Clearing Stations in the area. There were many gun positions located around Brandhoek and many of the graves (286) in this cemetery are those of artillerymen.
The gates of the cemetery were presented by Mr George and Edith Strutt in memory of their son, Lieutenant Anthony Harold Strutt, 16th (Chatsworth Rifles), Sherwood Foresters, who died of wounds on 27 April 1918 and is buried in this cemetery.
Lieutenant Anthony Herbert Strutt, 16th (Chatsworth Rifles) Sherwood Foresters, (Notts & Derby) Regiment, 117th Infantry Brigade, 39th Division. Killed in action 27 April 1918, age 22. Grave IV.A.5. Son of George Herbert Strutt (O.H.), D.L., J.P. for Derbyshire, and Edith Adela Strutt, Makeney House, near Derby. He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He joined the Inns of Court O.T.C. early in 1915 and subsequently obtained a commission in the Sherwood Foresters. He went to France with his Regiment in March 1916 and was promoted to Lieutenant on 20th July 1916. He fought at the Somme fighting but was invalided home with trench fever in December 1916 when the Battalion was in the Ypres Salient. After a period of home service, chiefly at Sunderland, he returned to the Front in October 1917 and again saw a great deal of fighting. In March 1918, he had ten days’ leave and went back to France just as the German Spring offensive began on 21 March. He was gassed early in the fighting and on 16 April was wounded in the ear, but continued on duty. On 27 April while in command of his Company, he was standing outside a dug-out in the ruined village of Voormezeele, when a shell exploded near him and a fragment hit him on the thigh and severed the main artery. He was attended to quickly but died a little later. His commanding officer wrote: ‘He was liked and respected by both Officers and men. He had had a particularly strenuous time, both on the Somme, and up here, and was feeling pretty bad, but he had done particularly fine work, and most certainly would have obtained a decoration, had he lived.’
RAMC
There are five men from the 88th Field Ambulance, RAMC, 29th Division, who were killed on 2 October 1918 and are buried here. these were the last men to be buried in this cemetery. 475351 Private Robert Henry Watson M.M., age 33. Grave III.F.4. Son of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Watson, Cambridge. He was married to Rose and they lived at 2 West View, Newnham Croft, Cambridge. 473125 Private Charles Edgar Rolfe, age 22. Grave III.F.7. Son of Charles and Elizabeth Rolfe, 15 Avenue Approach, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. He was working as a Clerk with the Ipswich Education Committee when he enlisted as Territorial in August 1914 in the 1st East Anglian Field Ambulance, RAMC claiming his age as 17 years and 11 months. He saw service at Gallipoli being transferred to hospital in Malta with dysentery in September 1915 and then transferred back to the UK in January 1916. In September 1916 he joined 88th Field Ambulance in the field on the Western Front. 475147 Private Ernest Robert Gill, Grave III.F.5. He was married to Alice and they lived at 106 Essex Street, Norwich with their son Ernest who was born on 29 May 1917. 473267 Corporal William Alfred Hardwicke, age 40. Grave III.F.6. Son of J. Hardwicke, of Ipswich, Suffolk. He was married to Alice and they lived at 100 Handford Road, Ipswich with their four children. The 1911 census showed him employed as a Store Keeper at an Iron Works and his wife was also working as a machinist in a factory. 6849 Private Henry James Ford, age 20. Grave III.F.3. Son of ex-Serjt.-Major Henry and Ann Hall Ford, Myrtle Villa, Redan Hill, Aldershot. They also had two daughters. The 1911 census shows his father serving as a Sergeant Major with the RAMC. On the 2 October the Field Ambulance was at an ADS at Clapham Junction on the Menin Road and evacuating wounded in daylight as the road could not be used in the dark by the ambulances due to the condition of the road.
Canadian Engineer
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Craik Irving DSO, Commanding HQ, 2nd Field Company, 4th Division, Canadian Engineers. Killed in action 29 October 1917, age 8. Grave I.N.26. Son of Mr. and Mrs. T. C. Irving, of Toronto. He was married to Jessie and they lived at 431, Brunswick Avenue, Toronto. He was appointed Captain of the 2nd Field Company on 1 June 1911 and went with the Company to France as Captain on 22 September 1914. He was promoted to Major on 13 September 1915 and then to Lt Colonel on 14 October 1916 and took up the post as Commanding Royal Engineers Canadian 4th Division. He was awarded the DSO and was mentioned in despatches. His brother William enlisted as a private and was wounded and invalided back to Canada.
In April 1915 Thomas wrote a report on the condition of the line that the Canadian 2nd Infantry Brigade took over from the French in the days preceding the German gas attack at Langemarck. He wrote: ‘…things were in a deplorable state from the standpoint of defence, safety and sanitation, and large quantities of disinfectant should be sent into the trenches immediately for liberal use. The right flank and the next portion to the left had a parapet of mud heaped up in front approximately 2 feet thick at the bottom and from 4 inches to 1 foot at the top with an occasional loophole punched through the earth. There is no parados for this part of trench. The water level is about two feet down below the surface of the ground with numerous shell holes and also a section of the trench behind partially filled with water. There was a plugged drain passing between these two sections in a North Easterly direction through the German lines. In front of these sections are numerous bodies buried at a very shallow depth making it impossible for us at many places to excavate at all. There is also human excreta littered all over the place. Going to the left we next strike 650 feet of firing line completely enfiladed by the enemy’s artillery, which had no traverses in it. The parapet ranged from 2 feet to 4 feet in height and from 6 inches at the top to three feet at the bottom in thickness. The ground where the men stand in the firing position is paved with rotting bodies and human excreta. The ground behind is full of excreta and dead bodies. This ground is about an average of 1 1/2 feet above the water table, so we are first putting in traverses to protect the men from direct enfilading fire, next a parados to protect them from the side kick of the enfilading fire, then the deepening of the trench to the water table and the thickening of the parapet. This is all being carried on as rapidly as we can get material.’
Thomas was killed in his dugout by a fragment of German bomb that hit his dugout. Following his death Major General D. Watson, C.O. Canadian 4th Division, wrote to Irving’s father; ‘Yesterday afternoon Col. Irving came in as usual to my headquarters, and we went over the program of work together, going into the different phases of the work already done, and mapping out the most urgent requirements for further consideration and action. He had tea with us between 5 and 5.30 p.m., and afterwards went across the road to his dugout. A short time afterwards a German aeroplane came over and scattered the usual nightly supply of bombs all over the area. One of these struck immediately at the door of his dugout, and as he was unfortunately sitting at the only place in the dugout opposite the door, he was hit by a piece of the shell in the chest and died almost instantly. He was buried this afternoon at a little military cemetery some distance to our rear, and his grave will be properly looked after and carefully marked.’
Tragic Accident
Second Lieutenant Arthur Leslie Gwynne Jones, 252nd Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. Died in an accident 4 May 1918, age 20. Grave III.B.7. Son of Annie Elizabeth and the late Lt. Col. John Arthur Jones, of Ty Dyfrig, Llandaff, near Cardiff. His epitaph reads AGE 20. OF LLANDAFF FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH IN THE SERVICE OF THE GUNS. He graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and was commissioned in November 1916. He had been on the Western Front for some fifteen months when, at 1pm on 4 May 1918, he was at an observation post in the top of the north western tower of the Vlamertinghe chateau when a fire caused by an upset tin of petrol and an open brazier broke out two stories below. The Lovat Scouts were in the room and it had been the habit to use the brazier and tin, which stood on a wooden floor, for cooking in contravention of Standing Orders. With German shells falling, Jones and another man climbed out of a window and attempted to escape by climbing down the side of the building using the wire lightning conductor but it broke and both men fell from 75 feet to their death. Major C E Edwards, Royal Fusiliers, a witness at the Court of Enquiry, recounted that: ‘I went to the North Tower and saw smoke coming out of the windows in the turret roof. There were about five men sitting on the copings or at the windows of the turret of the two men who fell. I saw one of them hanging on to the lightning conductor below the coping with his hands: the Officer was close behind him. I shouted to the man to try and get a grip of the lightning conductor with his legs which he tried to do. Just then the officer put his weight on the lightning conductor which broke & they both fell.’
His commanding officer wrote to his father : ‘He will be missed most frightfully in the battery, where he was loved by officers and men. Your son had done splendidly ever since he joined the battery, and especially in these last few weeks under most trying conditions. His record of military service, short as it was, is evidence enough that the country has lost a loyal and gallant officer who would have' gone far in his profession.’ A Court of Enquiry was conducted at Vlamertinghe Chateau on 5 May. 88070 Gunner W Booth, 252nd Siege Battery, was tried by a Field General Court Martial and was found guilty of allowing the fire to be lit. He admitted to putting a tin of water on the brazier which then knocked over a tin of petrol that then caught fire and set of small Arms Ammunition. He said that he had shouted fire to 2nd Lt Jones two stories up. The report also found that 125003 Sergeant D Fraser, Lovat Scouts, who appeared as a witness against Booth, should also have been charged as he was in charge of the party of observers in the turret in which the fire occurred. The file suggests that action should be taken again him. On 12 May 1918, Arthur’s father wrote to the War Office requesting that his son’s death be recorded as ‘Killed in action’ as opposed to accident. The record was not amended.
Boy Soldiers
In the Ypres Salient, we are drawn to the graves of 6322 Private John Condon, 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment, killed in action in May 1915, age 14 and the youngest known battle casualty of the war, although this is now questioned, and the grave of 5750 Valentine Strudwick, 8th Rifle Brigade, killed in action in January 1916, age 15. Strudwicks grave attracts a great deal of attention because of its location at Essex Farm and that locations association with Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae and the poem ‘In Flanders Fields.’ There are many more ‘Boy Soldiers’ buried across the Salient and who are not remembered and these include three from Falkirk District Private William Jamieson, age 17, Private James Duchart, age 16, and Private Herbert Richmond, age 17. There were many reasons why underage boys enlisted in 1914 and 1915 boredom with their jobs, looking for adventure, and escaping family pressures. The checks on age and qualification to enlist were more relaxed than later in the war. The army preferred younger recruits, there was a history of boy soldiers in the army going back over one hundred years. At Waterloo the army had a number of boy soldiers in their ranks. The army preferred younger recruits as they would follow orders and accept discipline more readily than older men. The boys had a belief in their own indestructibility and were prepared to take more risks. We tend to also forget the number of boys who served in the Royal Navy and we do not seem to have the same passionate response to their service as we do those who fought on the Western Front. With regards to the army, the difference was the sheer number who served on the Western Front and there were more boy soldiers in 1915 than served in Wellington’s army at Waterloo. For further reading on this subject I recommend Richard Van Emden’s excellent book Boy Soldiers of the Great War.
There is one Boy soldier buried here:
340164 Gunner Maitland Harold Goring, 4th Divisional Ammunition Column, Canadian Field Artillery. Killed in action 19 October 1917, age 17. Grave II.M.4. Son of Archie H. and Carlotta M. Goring, of Toronto. Resident of Toronto at time of enlistment. He was employed as a ball bearing grinder before he enlisted on 17 January 1917, stated his age as 18. He landed in Liverpool in April 1917 and went to Shorncliffe, Kent were he waited to be posted and went as part of a reinforcement to France on 21 August and was attached to the 4th Ammunition Column. They had just been dismissed from parade and were making for their billet in Ypres when he was killed by a splinter from a bomb dropped by an enemy aircraft. A British chaplain wrote to his grandmother, she was listed as his next of kin, advising her that he had officiated at her grandson’s burial as a Methodist Chaplain could not be obtained.
Casualties from Explosion on 27 April 1918
Plot I, Row O, all the burials are from April 1918, however, there are two men who were killed in the explosion on 27 April. See Red Farm Cemetery and Hagle Dump for more.
Cemetery Location
All three cemeteries at Brandhoek lie to the west of Vlamertinghe and are on the new road between Poperinge and Ieper. They are visible from the road.
FALKIRK AND DISTRICT MEN BURIED HERE
Bo’ness
13th Battalion Royal Scots
Age 36
21.8.17
I.D.25
Muiravonside
24th Battery, 38th Brigade, Royal Horse & Field Artillery
Age 25
27.9.17
I.H.24
Burials
UK – 849
Australian – 46
New Zealand – 18
Canadian – 46
South African – 5
British West Indies – 1
Chinese Labour Corps - 1
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