Red Farm Cemetery
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- 2 days ago
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This is one of the smallest cemeteries in the Ypres Salient and it is certainly not on any tour guides itinerary as they and many others are focused on Brandhoek further along the road. It is located on the Poperinghe to Vlamertinghe Road on which were located a number of Field Ambulances. During the Battle of the Lys in April 1918, a new cemetery was established near the ‘Red Farm’, which was used during April and May. Red Farm Military Cemetery contains 46 burials of the First World War, 17 are unidentified, and there are three civilians buried here. Twenty of the 46 burials are men who lost their lives on 27 April 1918 and three Belgian civilians. The formation of this cemetery is due to the events on 27 April 1918.
Casualties of the Ammunition Dump Explosion of 27 April 1918
Located in the area were numerous Field Ambulances, camps, dumps for ammunition and stores, artillery gun sites, railheads, and light railways for moving supplies and men. On 27 April 1918 at 12.30pm a German shell struck an ammunition dump located near what was named on the trench maps as Q Camp. Leading off the Poperinghe to Vlamertinghe Road is a road, known as York Cross on the British maps, that leads to today’s Hagle Dump Cemetery and further on to the site of what was Dirty Bucket Camp. Also located on this side road was a row of houses occupied by Belgian civilians and close by to Q Camp was a wooden shack were two Belgian women sold egg and chips. On 27 April, the camps, Field Ambulances, and Belgian civilian properties felt the full force of the shock from the blast resulting in numerous casualties, estimates put the dead at sixty plus. Twenty are buried here at Red Farm Cemetery with Row C at the back of the cemetery which has sixteen burials five of whom are unidentified men from the Royal Garrison Artillery. In total there are nine men from the RGA in this Row killed on 27 April. There are seven identified and one unidentified burials in Row B of men killed on 27 April and in Row A there are three burials. There are also three Belgian civilians buried here who were killed on 27 April.
The other dead from this explosion can be found at nearby Hagle Dump Cemetery in Plot I, Row C there are eight burials of men killed on 27th April and these are the first burials in the cemetery as well as those in Row D behind. The majority of those in Row D are from the 10th Battalion, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment). It was this Battalion, with twenty men killed on 27 April, who suffered the most casualties and there are sixteen of them buried at Hagle Dump Cemetery. The War Diary entry for 27 April of the 10th Battalion Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) records the aftermath of the shell hitting the ammunition dump: ‘A serious explosion occurred behind the Detail Camp at G6 a.2.3 Sheet 28 N.W. Belgium about 12.30 pm caused by a H.V. enemy shell striking an Ammunition and Guncotton Dump. The camp was wrecked and numerous huts set on fire by the explosion. Rescue parties at once set to work to assist in recovering the numerous casualties from the debris, and extinguish the fires, in face of great danger from recurring explosions from the dump. Casualties suffered by this Battalion totalled:- Killed – Lieut D. F. Anderson. Other Ranks 17, Wounded – Other Ranks 28. Missing – Other Ranks 1.’
The Belgian houses were demolished in the explosion and the shack blown to match wood and Red Farm ADS, located some 500 yards from the explosion, was also blown away by the explosion and those men, already wounded and awaiting evacuation, and who were killed in the explosion are buried in Red Farm Cemetery. The War Diary of 140th Field Ambulance which was at Proven records on the 27 April: ‘…Hear that Red Farm (138F.A.) was blown down and many injured. Owing to explosion of ammunition dump.’ The War Diary of 138th Field Ambulance, 41st Division recorded:
Fred Dixon served with the 10th Battalion of the Queen’s Royal (West Surrey) Regiment, he survived the war and wrote an article for the Western Front Association publication ‘Stand To’ which appeared in the December 1982 Edition. In it he described the view when standing on the main Ypres – Poperinghe road when facing east towards Ypres: ‘There was the road on the left leading to Dirty Bucket Camp. On the corners of this side road was a solid farm house and a Casualty Clearing Station with behind the CCS an ammunition dump. Further along the Dirty Bucket Camp road on the right-hand side was a line of houses occupied by civilians whilst on the left and beyond the farm house a wooden shack from which two Belgian girls dispensed fried eggs and chips.’ Fred Dixon and his colleagues occupied a Nissen hut behind the farm house the roof of which was protected by a double row of sandbags with a three foot bank of earth round the outside. ‘One day as we were sitting on our respective kits, eating our stew from our mess tins, the top of the Nissen hut including the sandbags collapsed on the top of us. The entrance was blocked so we scrambled out over the top only to find the air filled with exploding .303 ammunition. It was obvious that the dump had gone up. Later in the day we were able to visit the ruined hut to salvage our equipment. We found the farm house had taken some of the shock from us and the sandbagged roof the rest. The CCS did not exist the civilian houses were shattered and a crater the side and depth of a small lake had appeared where the dump had stood. The wooden shack had disappeared along with the two girls. All the houses in the area which had not been wrecked had lost their roofs. Half-way down the far side of the crater was a baby’s pram.’ Buried here at Red Farm Cemetery are the Belgian civilians killed in the explosion, two women and a child.
Noel Chavasse and Red Farm
Martin-Leake was the first man to be awarded a bar to his VC winning his at Zonnebeke and was one of only three men to have won a bar to his VC. The others being Captain Noel Chavasse and Charles Upham of the New Zealand Military Forces. Martin-Leake commanded No.46 Field Ambulance, 15th (Scottish Division) at Red Farm which was located near Brandhoek CCS. On the 31 July 1917, 2,153 casualties passed through No.46 Field Ambulance. On 2nd August, Noel Chavasse was brought to the Field Ambulance as a patient. He was Medical Officer to the 1/10 Kings Liverpool Regiment, the Liverpool Scottish of the 55th Division. Dr J A Campbell Colston, an American doctor attached to 46th Field Ambulance recorded the meeting in his diary: 'An Ambulance came up late tonight and in it was Captain Chavasse, VC, RAMC, of the King’s Liverpool Battalions of the 55th Division. His face was unrecognizable, all blackened from a shell burst very near and he seemed to be unconscious. As he had an abdominal wound besides I did not take him out of the Ambulance which was sent on direct to 32 CCS where he will probably die.' He was indeed fatally wounded and he died on 4 August. He is buried in New Brandhoek Military Cemetery one of three cemeteries opened for Third Ypres. Chavasse won his Bar posthumously at Wieltje which is only a few miles from where Martin-Leake had won his.
Location
Red Farm Military Cemetery is located 7.5 kilometres west of Ieper town centre, on the Poperingseweg N308 connecting Ieper to Poperinge. From Ieper town centre the Poperingseweg (N308), is reached via Elverdingsestraat then directly over two small roundabouts in the J.Capronstraat. The Poperingseweg is a continuation of the J.Capronstraat and begins after a prominent railway level crossing. The cemetery itself lies 7 kilometres along the N308 Poperingseweg on the right hand side of the road, after passing through the village of Vlamertinge and Brandhoek.
The cemetery was designed by A J S Hutton.
Burials
UK – 46
Unnamed – 17
Belgian Civilians - 3
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