British Airmen-Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery

Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery. Authors image

Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery is located in the grounds of the former Kemmel Chateau which was north-east of Kemmel village and the cemetery was established on the north side of the chateau grounds in December 1914. It continued to be used by divisions fighting on the southern sectors of the Belgian front until March 1918, when after fierce fighting involving both Commonwealth and French forces, the village and fell into German hands in late April. The village was retaken later in the year, but in the interval it was badly shelled and the old chateau destroyed. The entrance to the cemetery is a representation of the old chateau that was destroyed and the trees make a wide avenue to the Cross of Sacrifice. The original chateau was located to the rear of the cemetery and was owned by the son-in-law of the Hennessy brandy family. The road that runs past the cemetery was known to the British as Sackville Street. The village of Kemmel was behind the lines for much of the War and despite this it was often shelled by long range German guns. Kemmel Churchyard CWGC is located nearby.

Second Lieutenant Elvis Albert Bell

Second Lieutenant Elvis Albert Bell, 22nd Squadron, Killed in action 22 September 1917, age 23. Grave X.71. He was Canadian and the son of Mrs Sarah Bell, Glanford, Wentworth, Ontario. He enlisted on the 23 September 1914 giving his profession as a heating engineer. He joined the infantry service number 37028 as a Private and was transferred to the Corps Troops Supply Column on 2 February 1916. On the 6 April 1917, he was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and was gazetted Second Lieutenant.  He was flying A7205 Bristol F2b on an observation patrol with his observer Second Lieutenant Roger Emmett when they were shot down in flames over Hollebeke by Hauptmann Rudolf Berthold commander of Jasta 18. Emmett’s body was not recovered and he is listed on the Arras Memorial. Berthold was a highly decorated ace with 44 kills to his name. After the war he joined the Freikorps, the precursors of the Nazi stormtroopers of the SA, in 1919 and was killed in Harburg on the Elbe on 15 March 1920 by anti-Freikorps demonstrators strangled, it was reported, by the ribbon of his ‘Blue Max’. On his grave was inscribed ‘Honoured by his enemies – slain by his German brethren.’

Read more about the British airmen buried or commemorated in the Ypres Salient.