Chester Farm Cemetery
- Admin
- Mar 15, 2021
- 12 min read
Updated: Mar 21
Chester Farm Cemetery, CWGC, Ypres, was the name given to a farm, probably by the Cheshire Regiment, about 1 Km South of Blauwepoort Farm, on the road from Zillebeke to Voormezeele. The cemetery was begun on 15 March 1915 when two men from the Norfolk Regiment were buried here both killed on the same day and are buried in Plot II AA1 and AA1A, and was used by front line troops until November 1917. Plot I contains the graves of ninety-two officers and men of the 2nd Manchesters, who died in April-July 1915, there are seventy-two London Regiment burials, thirteen men from the East Surrey Regiment buried here in April 1915, and sixteen men from the 1st and 4th Battalions Gordon Highlanders. The 1st and 4th Battalions Gordon Highlanders of 3rd Division held the trenches here during July and August 1915 and the command post on the raised ground on the northern canal bank between the Bluff and Spoilbank was named Gordon Post.
The Bluff was created from the spoil thrown up from a large cutting when the Ypres to Comines Canal was being constructed. The trench lines ran between Verbrandenmolen on the left and The Bluff and the early trenches were constructed by the French in 1914. The British then took over the line and the trenches were numbered, as opposed to being named trenches, and the fighting here went on for four years. Writing in her ‘Battle Book of Ypres’, Beatrix Brice quotes Lieutenant-Colonel H, d’Arch Smith, 2nd Suffolks who describes the work in reclaiming land from the overflowing water, and consolidating their trenches: ‘We floundered in the mud, we endeavoured to stop or rather to divert the endless flow of water which the Boche, being as always in higher ground than ourselves, cleverly poured into our trenches to join streams that flowed in from our back area. In fact we became amphibious. With keenness, ingenuity, and cunning we dug where we could, erected parapets where we could not, and filled hundreds of sandbags, with a sort of porridges of mud as a foundation before anything could be built up… The arrival of timber and of ready-made duck-boards helped matters, and support and communication trenches began to look as though they might resist a puff of wind, though the front-line ones had not much more strength than what a barrier of barbed wire lent them.’
Mine Warfare at the Bluff
The Ypres-Comines canal was excavated here before the War and the spoil from the workings was thrown up on either side and this was known as the Bluff and further along the canal, Spoilbank. Trench lines were established here from 1914 first by French troops and then by the British. Mine warfare was a prominent feature with many craters are still visible today. An extraordinary incident occurred
on 30 December 1915 which was recorded in his diary by Billy Congreve, Brigade-Major, 76th Brigade, 3rd Division: ‘Some excitement today. About 7am this morning, all the water in the big Bluff crater suddenly disappeared with a rush and left exposed in the south-west corner of it the entrance to a Boche gallery. Brisco (2nd Lieutenant R B Brisco, Royal Engineers) at once went up and started off down the gallery by himself, leaving a man armed with a rifle at the entrance. After going about sixty feet, he heard somebody coming towards him, so he slowly retired. When he had got close back to the entrance again he waited and, as soon as the Boche showed his head round the corner, fired with his revolver. He missed. The man who was with him, in his excitement, let off his rifle. It flew up and hit Brisco a whack on the nose that nearly knocked him out, so the Boche got away. I went up in the afternoon to see how things were and found the crater almost dry. Many tons of water must have run down the Boche gallery…… I found three grenadiers of the RWF sitting on top of the block! These I hurriedly withdrew to a safe distance. About half an hour later the Boche blew up his gallery from the inside without doing us any damage, so now all is quiet…’ Read more about the Mine Craters of Messines Ridge.
Retaking The Bluff – March 1916
Before the attack on Verdun the Germans initiated a series of diversionary attacks along the allied line. One of these attacks was against the British line at the Bluff in the Ypres Salient. They exploded a mine in front of the Bluff on 22 January and shelling half a mile of front line trenches, including the Bluff itself, on the 14th February. The front line was defended by the 17th Division’s 51st Brigade which had relieved the 76th Brigade on 7th February. The Bluff was held by a single platoon of the 10/Lancashire Fusiliers when the Germans attacked. Their positions were blasted by artillery and the men sought cover in the Bluff’s tunnels. This was a fatal mistake as the Germans exploded a small mine beneath and buried the occupants. The captured trenches were consolidated and repeated attacks to retake them failed. It was concluded by the commander of V Corps that to retake The Bluff and the lost trenches would require a more detailed plan and the
attack to be undertaken by troops who knew the ground. For this reason 76th Brigade were recalled from reserve and placed under the command of 17th Division for the attack on 2 March. Brigadier General H.C.C. Uniacke, GOC Royal Artillery, V Corps, was brought in to arrange artillery co-operation. All four of 76th Brigades Battalions would be taking part in addition to 7/Lincolns and 10/Sherwood Foresters from the 51st Brigade. The plan was for the 2/Suffolks, supported by the 10/Royal Welch Fusiliers to storm The Bluff as well as the canal bank where the German mine workings were suspected. Companies of the 1/Gordon Highlanders were to attack on the left and the 8/King’s Own to attack the centre. The difficult area was The Bluff because of its height and the ability for surveillance. It was considered impossible for the 2/Suffolks to cross No Man’s land without supporting artillery cover. To do this would forewarn the Germans. It was estimated that two minutes was all the time the Suffolks needed to cover the ground. It was Uniacke who came up with the answer. He would arrange for a battery to fire a salvo at The Bluff, followed by another salvo two minutes later and this pattern would be fired at irregular intervals day and night leading up to the day of the attack. Only at zero hour would one salvo be fired and while the Germans were taking cover expecting the second salvo the Suffolks would cross and storm the German positions. At 4.30am after the guns fired for two minutes being the usual salvo the Germans had been expecting at 4.32am as the fire ceased the assault went in. the Germans were taken by surprise and except for the loss of one of the tunnelling parties and three platoons of ‘A’ Company, Gordon Highlanders who were practically annihilated by machine-gun fire, all objectives were achieved. Two men from Falkirk District died in the action by the Gordon Highlanders Private John Anderson of Larbert and Private Charles Mason of Plean, Falkirk.
Gordon Highlanders
Lieutenant Frederick George Stranack, 1st Battalion. 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Division. Killed in action 28 July 1915, Grave I.F.1. Educated at Hurstpierpoint College, Sussex, he was a member of the Officers Training Corps at the College. He was employed by Barclays Bank and United Counties Bank and he was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant 1 December 1914 and joined the 3rd Battalion and then went to France and joined the 1st Battalion. On the 27 July 1915 the War Diary records: ‘2nd Lieut F G Stranack shot through the head and died at 11.15pm.’ On the 28 July the War Diary reports that the funeral of 2nd Lieutenant Stranack took place at 7.30pm at Chester Farm Cemetery. S/9543 L/Cpl John Sinclair, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Division. Killed in action 29 July 1915, age 18. Grave IF.2. Son of Mrs B G Barnett, 612 West, 135th Street, New York. John also went by the alias Hildebrand Miranda, or Sinclair. His Pension Record Card records him as John Sinclair. On the 27 July the War Diary reported that it was a quiet day and that new portions of trenches had been taken over south of the canal by ‘A’ Company who had good opportunities for sniping. A mine was exploded to the Battalions right but nothing came of it. The War Diary noted ‘..presumably German..’ On the 29 July the Battalions trenches at the Bluff were heavily shelled by German artillery however, the German guns were silenced by the Belgian artillery who were supporting the Battalion. No casualties were recorded. Also killed in this action was a Falkirk District.
FALKIRK AND DISTRICT MEN BURIED HERE
Larbert
1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders
Age 26
29.7.15
I.E.1
Son of Richard & Jane Heggison, Burnhead Road, Larbert. Born at Torwood
2nd Lieutenant Frederick Alexander Rose, 4th Battalion, 8th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Division. Killed in action 10 August 1915, age 24. Grave I.F.4. The third son of Hugh and Jean Rose, a builder in Huntley, Aberdeenshire. He was educated at Gordons School. Huntley, and Aberdeen University. He graduated M.A in 1911 with First Class Honours in English. He acted as an assistant in English for a year before coming up to Christ Church, Oxford in 1911 having won the Douglas Jerrold Scholarship. He graduated with First Class Honours in 1913, was elected to a Post-graduate Scholarship, and was beginning to prepare his thesis on Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, when war broke out. He joined the Officers Training Corps and was gazetted as 2nd Lieutenant in the summer of 1915 and was sent to France were he joined the 4th Battalion. On the 10 August 1915, the Battalion was in the line at trenches 28,29, 30 and 31 Support Trench and the War Diary records: ‘Battalion in trenches. Some shelling by enemy of our trenches by high explosive shrapnel. 2Lt Rose F.A. killed, 2 men killed, six wounded…’
Royal Flying Corps
Captain Harold Jackson, 41 Squadron, Killed in action 7 June 1917, age 21. Grave I.K.31. son of Mr F. T. Jackson of The Spring, Stoke Coventry. Brother of Mr. F. H. Jackson, of "Fairhaven," Palmerston Road, Coventry. He was employed as an apprentice in an engineering works and enlisted in 1915. Soon after the outbreak of war he joined the Ruffy-Beauman school of flying, at Hendon and there obtained his pilot’s certificate. Harold was then granted a commission in the 13th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment transferring to the RFC three months later. On 1 October 1916, he flew out to France. He was promoted Captain and Flight Commander in March 1917. On the day of his death he was miles over German lines when he sustained a direct hit. Although his foot was blown off and his arm practically severed at the shoulder he brought his machine back. He died at the dressing station shortly afterwards. While equipped with F.E.8s, 41 Squadron participated in the Battle of Arras (April–May 1917) and the Battle of Messines (June 1917). By this time, the unit had become the last 'pusher' fighter squadron in the RFC. In July 1917, No. 41 were re-equipped with DH 5 fighters, which proved disappointing; in October 1917, the squadron finally received S.E.5a fighters, with which they were equipped for the duration of the war. Learn more about 41 Squadron
Canadian
A/298 Private John Christian Thurston, 1st Battalion (Ontario Regiment), 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division. Killed in action 3 April 1916, age 21. Grave I.A.5. Son of Charles S. and Elmira B. Mann Thurston, 3135 Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A. He had a sister, Estelle, who was living with her parents in Richmond. He was employed as a clerk when he enlisted on 12 January 1915 in Windsor, Ontario. He landed in the UK on 27 June 1915 and was part of a draft from the Canadian Base Camp at Shorncliffe to France on 23 August. On the night of the 2/3 April they relieved the 6th Battalion DCLI in the trenches and occupied Gordon Post, Loop trench and trenches 29, 30, 30S, 30R, Pollock trench, the Bean, trenches 31S, 31, 32, 32S, 33, 33S, 32R, 33R, with the Battalion HQ in Gordon Terrace. They were heavily shelled during the relief with the Transport Officer and four men wounded, and one man killed.
An Artist at War
Lieutenant Ernest Stafford Carlos, 8th Battalion, (East Kent Regiment) Buffs, 17th Infantry Brigade, 24th Division. Killed in action 14 June 1916, age 34. Grave I.K.36. There is no doubt that the vocation of an artist seemed to be the prevailing influence on the life of Ernest Carlos. He had a canvas hung in the Royal Academy, London at the age of eighteen, plus a further thirteen works displayed there in various exhibitions, including one in 1915. Ernest Carlos enlisted in the summer of 1916 and considered suitable for a commission in the infantry and joined the 8th Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment). He joined them when the battalion was near Vimy Ridge in the Arras area. In May 1917, they moved north to the Ypres Salient in time for the Battle of Messines in June 1917.
During this period, he painted some twenty pictures capturing the scenes he saw and included: Vimy Ridge, evening (21 April 1917), On the Track of the Hun, on the march. Lieven near Lens (April 1917), Fires Burning at Ypres (June 1917), French Farm Girl at Abeele, Poperinghe (1917), and Three Officers Playing Cards at Poperinghe (1917). During the early stages of the Battle of Messines the 17th Brigade remained in support at St Eloi and had been ordered to move forward to the Green Line at Oosttaverne Wood. On the 8 June they were ordered back to rest at near Triangular Dump south of Battle wood and relieving the 18th London (Irish) and 3rd rifle Brigade. They were next in action on 14 June, when they attacked the German line at spoil bank, a 300 foot long, thirty-foot-high bank of spoil from the Comines Canal which ran south west from Battle Wood. The 17th Brigade would attack the right-hand sector of the bank. There was fierce hand to hand fighting before the bank was secured on 14 June. In their honour the bank was named Buffs Bank. It is not clear when Ernest Carlos was killed in action.
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 in the same way 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 under age 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 see Richard Van Emden’s excellent book Boy Soldiers of the Great War.
There are three Boy Soldiers buried in Chester Farm Cemetery.
2236 Private Alfred Bootham, 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment, 14th Infantry Brigade, 5th Division. Killed in action 9 June 1915, age 16. Grave I.A.8. Son of Martha Ann Bootham, 5 Grimshaw Street, Gorton, Manchester. While in the line on 9 June they had one man killed and three wounded. 2881 Private H Bagshaw, 1/6th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment), 139th Infantry Brigade, 46th Division. Killed in action 21 September 1915, age 17. Grave I.B.5. Son of Harriet Bagshaw, 5 Railway Cottages, Whaley Bridge, Stockport. The Battalion were in trenches 27, 28, 29, 30S and 30R. During a relief on 21/22 September they had seven Other Ranks killed. 592603 Rifleman Ernest Elgar Gordon Miles, 1/18th Battalion London Regiment, (London Irish Rifles), 141st Infantry Brigade, 47th Division. Killed in action 12 June 1917, age 17. Grave I.K.33. Son of William Robert and Eliza Ann Miles, 55 Lumley Buildings, Pimlico, London. The Division was taking part in the Battle of Messines and the Battalion was in the designated ‘Blue Line’ in Triangular Spoil Bank north of the canal. The enemy had been subjecting them to intermittent shelling throughout the day.
Location
Chester Farm Cemetery is located 5 kilometres south of Ieper town centre, on the Vaartstraat, a road leading from the Rijselseweg (N365) connecting Ieper to Armentieres. From Ieper town centre the Rijselseweg is located via the Rijselsestraat, through the Rijselpoort (Lille Gate) and by crossing the Ieper ring road, towards Armentieres and Lille. The road name then changes to Rijselseweg. 3 kilometres along the Rijselseweg lies the left hand turning onto the Vaartstraat. The cemetery is located 1.5 km along the Vaartstraat on the left-hand side of the road.
The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Burials
There are 420 Commonwealth servicemen buried or commemorated in this cemetery. Seven of the burials are unidentified, but Special Memorials commemorate six casualties known or believed to be buried among them.
UK – 306
Australian – 21
Canadian – 87
German - 4
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