The first burial in the cemetery took place on the 1st November 1914, and between that date and April 1918, Plots I, II and III and part of Plot IV were filled. The hamlet of La Clytte was used as Brigade Headquarters, and the burials were carried out by Infantry, Artillery and Engineer units (out of 600, 250 are those of Artillery personnel and 66 are those of Engineers).
The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Cemetery Location
La Clytte Military Cemetery is located 8 Kms west of Ieper town centre on the N304 Klijtseweg, a road leading from the N375 Dikkebuseweg, connecting Ieper to Dikkebus, Klijte and on to Loker. From Ieper town centre the Dikkebusseweg (N375) is located via Elverdingsestraat, straight over a roundabout onto J.Capronstraat (for 30 metres), then left along M.Fochlaan. Immediately after the train station, the first right hand turning is the Dikkebusseweg. 7 Kms along the Dikkebusseweg lies the village of De Klijte (formerly La Clytte) and the right hand turning at the roundabout just before the village leads onto the N304 Reningelststraat. The cemetery lies 100 metres after this right hand turning on the left-hand side of the road.
(Linesman map from August 1918. showing La Clytte surrounded by camps, dumps, trench railways and trench lines.)
In the church in the village of De Klijte there are murals to the French who fell in the fighting on the Scherpenberg in 1918.
In his diary ‘A Doctor of the Western Front’ Henry Owens, who was with the 2nd Cavalry Brigade Field Ambulance, wrote on 22 November 1914: ‘Major Steel, the ADMS (Assistant Director of Medical Services) came in and told us to form a dressing station at La Clytte beyond Locre. West, Graham and Bannerman went off. Stopped behind with Lathbury.’ On the 23rd November he recorded: ‘Major steel severely wounded by the shell at the dressing station at La Clytte. Arrived at La Clytte about 8pm. Major Steel was taken straight in to Bailleul but died in about an hour.’
On the 6th April 1917, he wrote of La Clytte: ‘All this country us very different from what it was in 1914. La Clytte is a mass of camps, huts, permanent horse standing and stabling, railway sidings and ammunition dumps. There are also lots of little new houses for refugees built chiefly out of old ration and ammunition boxes. Light railways and baby engines run up to the trench system and there is also a good service of tram and trolley lines. Lots of gun emplacements and a fair number of guns up – lots of 60 pounders and 6-inch howitzers, but not many big things. There seem to be plenty of preparations for a big push but apparently it is not expected to bring it off for a month or two. The Hun is said to have a lot of guns concentrated on this Army Front.’
Talbot House connection buried in this cemetery
Private Leslie E Stone, 19th Battalion, The King’s (Liverpool Regiment), Age 25, killed 6 May 1918. Grave V.B.1 He was a member of ‘The Duds’ the concert party of the 19th Kings Liverpool Regiment. They performed at Talbot House and a picture was taken of the group and made into a postcard that he signed along with eight others in the concert party. The card is in the TOC-H archive.
FALKIRK AND DISTRICT MEN BURIED HERE
Falkirk
6500 L/Cpl George Brown Crichton
1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders
Age 41
4.5.15
I.D.12
Son the late George Crichton of Aberdeen, husband of Margaret McKellop Crichton, 181 Grahams Road
15624 Pte William John Rice
1st Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers
Age18
5.5.15
I.C.9
Son of John & Helen Rice, 11 Melville Street
12842 Pte James Sorley
49th Company, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
15.4.18
Special Memorial between Plots IV and V Row A
20872 Pte Robert Wallace
2nd Battalion, Royal Scots
Age 18
25.5.16
II. B. 34
Son of William and Agnes Wallace, of 6, Salisbury St., Edinburgh
Denny & Dunipace
192452 Gunner Charles Graham Lambert
'B' Btty 174th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
Age 29
12.11.17
III.F.26
Husband of Marjory Agnes Forbes Lambert, Rosehill. Son of James & Annie Dawson Lambert
Links to the area
127311 Pte Samuel Rowland
9th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
Age 25
25.4.18
V.F.8
Son of David & Mary Sandilands Rowland. He moved with his family to Glasgow before the war.
Shot at Dawn
31184 Private Leonard Mitchell, 8th Battalion, York and Lancasters, 70th Brigade, 23rd Division. Grave III.A.2 Was executed in the village on 19 September 1917. He was under a suspended sentence of death for desertion when he deserted again. Son of George H. Mitchell, of 74, Rawmarsh Rd., Rotherham, Yorks. His brother, William Henry also died on service.
Cemeteries concentrated here
After the Armistice Plots V and VI were formed by the concentration of isolated graves and small graveyards from the area round Reninghelst, Dickebusch, Locre and Kemmel.
Burials
There are now 1,082 casualties of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery of these, 238 of the burials are unidentified and one of the graves, brought in from LEICESTER CAMP CEMETERY (a group of 17 graves on the road to Reninghelst), is marked with the names of two men between whom the identification rests.
UK – 813
Australian – 12
New Zealand – 3
Canadian – 51
South African – 6
British West Indies – 7
Unnamed – 190
There are Special Memorials to twenty-four men known to be buried among the unnamed.
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