British Airmen-Strand Military Cemetery

Strand Military Cemetery. Authors image

Strand Military Cemetery, only acquiring its current name following the grave concentrations here after the Armistice. It was known as The Australian Central Dressing Station 'Charing Cross' by the troops. Nearby was a trench called Broadway that ended at Dead Horse Corner, just north of Piccadilly Circus at the end of a trench called the Strand, which was a major route for troops moving eastward through Ploegsteert Wood. In October 1914, two burials were made at this place, close to an Advanced Dressing Station. The cemetery was not used between October 1914 and April 1917, but in April-July 1917 Plots I to VI were completed when 351 graves were added 232 of which are Australian. Plots VII to X were made after the Armistice, when graves were brought in from some small cemeteries and from the battlefields lying mainly between Wytschaete and Armentieres. The cemetery was in German hands for a few months in 1918, but was very little used by them. The Charing Cross Dressing Station itself is still in place and is used as a part aviary and part tool shed by the farmer on whose land it stands. Read the stories of other men buried in the Strand Military Cemetery

RE.8 aircraft

Royal Flying Corps

Lieutenant Bevis Heppel Bean, 9th Squadron and 6th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Killed in action 18 June 1917, age 27. Grave VII.A.41. Son of the Rev. Benjamin and Harriet Dobing Bean, of "Homedale" Cedar Road, Sutton, Surrey. Lieutenant Edgar Thomas Phillip, Royal Field Artillery attached to 9th Squadron. Killed in action 18 June 1917, age 22. Grave VII.A. 42. Both men were originally buried in the Nachtegaal No.1 German Military Cemetery at Merckem and reburied here in August 1930. Son of Katherine Philip, of "Glencairn," Nagambie, Victoria, Australia, and the late John Philip. They were flying in an RE8 (A3255), Bean was pilot and Phillip Observer, on a photographic reconnaissance patrol when they were shot down by anti-aircraft fire from Flakbatterie 101. The aircraft crashed and both were killed. They were originally buried in the Nachtegaal No.1 German Military Cemetery and their bodies moved to the Strand Military Cemetery in 1930.

Von Richthofen's 56th Victory - Second Lieutenant James Edward Power Clutterbuck, 53rd Squadron and Royal Field Artillery. Killed in action 25 June 1917, age 23. Grave IX.I.7. Son of the late Surgeon-Major E. R. Power, A.M.S., and of Mrs. C. A. Power Clutterbuck, of Rockstowes, Dursley, Glos. He was educated at Hailebury School and Clare College, Cambridge leaving before he graduated to enlist on 18 November 1914. He was gazetted Second Lieutenant on 29 January 1915 and joined the Royal Field Artillery and then the Royal Flying Corps. He was the pilot of RE8 (A3847) and was flying with Observer Lieutenant Leslie Spencer Bowman, age 20, he is listed on the Arras Flying Services Memorial, when they were shot down, at 17:20, in combat over Le Bizet by the German ace Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen, they were his 56th victory.

Royal Air Force

2nd Lieutenant Samuel Edward Carson, Pilot, 103rd Squadron. Killed in action 20 July 1918, age 20. Grave X.A.8. Son of Samuel Henry and Anne Rebecca Carson, of "Overdale," Bawtry Road, Canklow, Rotherham. 2nd Lieutenant Trevor Emlyn Ockwell Hawkins, Observer, 103rd Squadron. Killed in action 20 July 1918, age 18. Grave X.A.9. Son of Ockwell and Friswith Hawkins, 3 Werfa Place, Aberdare. They were flying a DH9 (C6200) in a bombing operation when they were shot down, their aircraft descended in an out of control slow spin when one wing crumpled over Armentieres, by Leutnant Paul Billik, an ace with 31 victories of Jasta 52. They were his 25th victory. Billik was to be denied the Pour le Merite, for which he had been nominated, when, in August 1918, his aircraft was damaged in a dog-fight and he landed behind Allied lines and was taken prisoner. By this time he had 31 victories. He was to return to Germany after the war only to die in a flying accident on 8 March 1926, at Staaken, Berlin when flying a Junkers F13. Both Carson and Phillip were originally buried in La Basse-Ville German Military Cemetery and reburied here in 1924.

2nd Lieutenant T McCarthy, Pilot, 82nd Squadron. Killed in action 24 August 1918, Grave X.C.5. 2nd Lieutenant C W Somerville, Observer, 82nd Squadron. Killed in action 24 August 1918, Grave X.C.4. They were flying an Armstrong Whitworth FK.8 (D5176) in a bombing operation when they were shot down by anti-aircraft fire although this is questioned. Leutnant Karl Plauth, Jasta 20, also lists this as his sixth kill claiming that he shot the aircraft down over Warneton at 20.30.  Both men were originally buried in La Basse-Ville German Military Cemetery and reburied here in 1924.

Armstrong Whitworth FK.8