Voormezeele Enclosure No.3
- Admin
- Jun 21, 2021
- 19 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Voormezeele Enclosure No.3 Cemetery. The Voormezeele Enclosures (at one time there were a total of four, but now reduced to three) were originally regimental groups of graves, begun very early in the First World War and gradually increased until the village and the cemeteries were captured by the Germans after very heavy fighting on 29 April 1918. Voormezeele Enclosure No.3 Cemetery, the largest of these burial grounds, was begun by the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in February 1915. Their graves are in Plot III, the other Plots from I to IX are the work of other units, or pairs of units, and include a few graves of October 1918. Plots X and XII are of a more general character. Plots XIII to XVI were made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from isolated sites and smaller cemeteries to replace the French graves (of April and September 1918) that were removed to a French cemetery. These concentrated graves cover the months from January 1915 to October 1918, and they include those of many men of the 15th Hampshires and other units who recaptured this ground early in September 1918.
There are two British bunkers located at Voormezeele. The first is on Wittenhuisstraat and is a frontline bunker of April 1918. It shows signs of damage from artillery fire and it was taken by the Germans and recaptured by the US 119th Infantry Regiment, 30th US Division in August 1918. The second is on Abdijmolenstraat and there were originally seven shelters in a row in the field. Today there are two and the best time to see them clearly is winter. These shelters were used by the Australian 4th Division Ammunition officer and the Salvage officer. There was a light railway network which connected with the main Elzenwalle sidings.
FALKIRK AND DISTRICT MEN BURIED HERE
Stenhousemuir
4th/5th Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)
Age 28
24.4.18
XIV.K.8
Son of Mrs Peter McFarlane, Williamson Buildings, King Street
Lieutenant John Brown M.C., 6th Battalion attached 9th Battalion (Pioneers) Seaforth Highlanders, 9th (Scottish) Division. Killed in action 11 April 1918, age 27. Grave XIII.B.26/27. Son of John and Isabella Brown, of Newton, Gateside, Fife. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh and Balliol College, Oxford. He enlisted in September 1914 serving initially in ‘A’ Company, 9th Battalion Royal Scots and went to Ypres at the end of February 1915. The Battalion were billeted in Dickebusch Huts Camp and then moved forward to spend 24 hours in the frontline trenches relieving the 2nd Cameron Highlanders who he described as ‘..quite little men, to whom war was a trade, not an experience.’ They then spent nights in working party’s around St Eloi digging and improving trenches with the Royal Engineers. He wrote: ‘The road up to St Eloi had one great advantage over that up to the brasserie, that till we were near Voormezeele there were never stray bullets to worry us. But Voormezeele was not a cheering spot. Bullets kept whacking against the walls of the houses. The whole of the middle of the church had been blown away.’ The Battalion had men who had been trained as bombers, hand grenade throwers, and the bombs in the early days were rudimentary. John Brown’s company was selected to be trained as bombers: ‘We tried to joke about it, and say that we would get plenty of elbow room in the trenches, but we were very gloomy for a few days. We drew up a set of hints to young bombers.’ Number three on their list was ‘Always have a fuse a foot long.’ Towards the end of May 1915 the Battalion was in position on the Ypres-Vlamertinghe Road when John Brown was severely wounded and he was sent back to ‘Blighty’ and to Leicester Hospital. Recovered from his wounds he was commissioned in August 1915 into the 6th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders seeing action at Vimy, the Somme, and Arras. He was invalided home in August 1916 suffering from Trench Fever and returned to France in January 1917 where he joined the 7th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders. On the 9th April the Battalion captured the village of St Laurent Blangy during the Battle of Arras, he was wounded again and he was awarded the Military Cross for his part in the action. He was sent home to recuperate from his wounds and arrived back in the Salient where he joined the 9th Battalion (Pioneers) Seaforth Highlanders at Vierstraat in April 1918. On the 10th April the Battalion was in Brigade Reserve at Piccadilly Farm and on the 11th April, while holding a trench against a German attack near Wytschaete John Brown was killed by a sniper. He was an accomplished poet writing verse throughout the War and recording his experiences. While at Balliol College in 1911 he wrote a poem that was based on the legend of Achilles, which he entered in the Newdigate Prize and it ended with this verse:
And thus the music of Achilles’ life
Burst from it prison, singing its sweet song
Unheard but by the soul. Meanwhile the strife
Of war rekindled round him; but its sound
Sung him that love in life was ne’er so strong
As love that passed, at death, laughing beneath the ground.
Captain George Hercules Justice, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers attached and commanding ‘D’ Company, 7th Battalion The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, 56th Infantry Brigade, 19th Division. Killed in action 31 July 1917, age 31. Grave XV.D.6. Son of Major Philip Justice (Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers) and Mrs. Philip Justice, Oakwood, Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight. He was born in March 1886, and educated at Bedford School and Sandhurst. He joined the York and Lancaster Regiment in 1907, but left the Army in 1911, and went to the Federated Malay States as assistant manager on the Sungei Buloh Rubber estate. He returned to England in 1916, and received a commission in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. The 19th Division, as part of IX Corps, 2nd Army, held the line at the foot of the Messines Ridge and as part of the 2nd Army subsidiary attack in support of the main attack by 5th Army in the north of the Salient had taken part in the opening day of Third Ypres. They advanced from some 500 yards from their positions at the Damm Strasse towards Ravine Wood and taking their objectives known as the ‘Blue Line’. During the advance ‘D’ Company had become held up by German machine-gun fire. In his diary, later published under the title ‘A Doctor on the Western Front’, Henry Owens who was Battalion Medical officer wrote: ‘About 7 I went up to the North Lancs Aid Post in Ravine Wood to see if they wanted anything. Very little shelling by the Huns on this side of Ravine Wood…. We had got all our objectives but the Division on our right had been hung up and our right had to come back to conform. Had only about 100 cases through the ADS and very few really bad ones. Justice (North Lancs) was killed by machine-gun fire. He was an awfully nice fellow. He had just got his Company (D Company)….’ The War Diary reported his death ‘Estimated casualties now found to be Capt. Justice wounded & 90 other ranks killed & wounded.’ Later recording ‘Capt. Justice now reported ‘died of wounds’…’ The Battalion chaplain wrote to George’s parents: ‘Your son's death has been felt very deeply by the whole battalion, both officers and men. The men, I know, deeply respected and liked him, and rightly so, as no officer I have ever met treated them more fairly and generously than he did. He was always quiet and unaffected, and cool in trying circumstances, while he never spared him- self when he could help others.’
Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry
At the outbreak of the First World War Canada did not have a regular military to call on. The PPCLI was raised with a donation of $100,000 from the then Captain Andrew Hamilton Gault on 6 August 1914 and this money he pledged to equip a Battalion to fight overseas. The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn as Governor General of Canada approved the creation of the Regiment. It was named after his daughter Princess Patricia. Also instrumental in founding the Regiment was Lieutenant Colonel Francis Douglas Farquhar, he was Military Secretary to the Duke of Connaught, it was Farquhar who sought permission to name the Regiment after the Duke of Connaught’s daughter. Farquhar was to become the Regiments first Commanding Officer. The PPCLI arrived in Britain on 18 October 1914 and was billeted at Bustard Camp near Stonehenge and joined the 80th Brigade, BEF on 16 November, and on 20 December left Southampton for France and were , at this time, the only Canadian Regiment in France. They went into the line on 6 January 1915 at Bois Carre opposite Wytschaete. Lieutenant Colonel Farquhar, Major Coldstream Guards, died of wounds received on 20 March 1915,and his replacement at Commanding Officer Temporary Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Cecil Buller, Rifle Brigade, was killed in action on 2 June 1916 during the German assault on the Canadian lines at Sanctuary Wood. Both men are buried beside each other in Voormezeele Enclosure No.3 Cemetery.
Alias
Captain Robert G R Mansfield (served as Captain Frederick Fitzgerald), Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry, Killed in action 26 January 1915, age 30. Grave III.A.1. Son of Jennie Gamble (formerly Mansfield), 6 Atherstone Terrace, Gloucester Road, South Kensington, London, and the late Capt. J. C. Mansfield. He was educated at Pretoria, Enniskillen, Ireland and he was commissioned in 1902 as a Second Lieutenant from the Militia in the Royal Irish Fusiliers. He fought in the Boer War and was promoted to Lieutenant in November 1906 and served with the Battalion in India for many years. He left the army and went to Canada using the assumed surname of Fitzgerald and on the formation of the PPCLI joined the Battalion and was commissioned as a Captain. On the 24 January the Battalion left Dickebusch and marched to Voormezeele and took over the trenches at St Eloi sections C3 to C10 from the Leinster Regiment. During the relief the Germans shelled section C9 inflicting casualties. The
Mound in the line near C8 was occupied by the Battalion snipers and they accounted for 17 Germans. On the night of 25/26 January they were relieved by the Royal Irish Regiment. Robert was killed during the relief along with four Other Ranks. His commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Francis Farquhar wrote to his parents: ‘…. He was in command of a certain part in the trenches, which though within less than a hundred yards of the German lines, was protected by a certain mound from rifle fire. He saw a British soldier lying about seventy yards away, across a road. He got out of his shelter and walked towards this man, presumably because he thought the man was still alive. Such an act was, of course, a very daring one, and he was shot through the head before he had gone very far…’
Lieutenant Colonel Francis Douglas Farquhar, D.S.O., Twice Mentioned in Despatches, Commanding Officer, Princess Patricia Light Infantry. Killed in action 21 March 1915, age 40. Grave III.A.6. Son of Sir Henry Thomas Farquhar, 4th Bart. and the Hon. Alice Farquhar. He was married to Lady Evelyn Farquhar (nee Hely-Hutchinson), 30 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, London. He was educated at Eton and joined the Coldstream Guards in April 1896 as a Second Lieutenant and was promoted to Lieutenant on 24 January 1898. He won his DSO in the Boer War. He was promoted to Captain on 20 April 1901 and in December 1901 was posted to the Chinese Regiment of Infantry and on his return was posted to Somaliland and saw action I the campaign here between 1903 to 1904. He served on the General Staff,
War Office from 1908 to 1913 and was promoted to Major in 1910 and to Lieutenant Colonel in 1913. In October 1913 he was appointed Military Secretary to the Governor-General of Canada. On the formation of the PPCLI in August 1914 he was appointed as the Commanding Officer. He was twice Mentioned in Despatches in April and again in June 1915. On the night of 19/20 March 1915 the Battalion was relieved by the 3rd Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps in the line at Shelley Farm, St Eloi. During the relief Lt Col Francis Farquhar was mortally wounded and died at 2.30am. The War Diary records that he was buried ‘.. in the Battalion Cemetery in Voormezeele.’ He requested that he was to be buried in the cemetery in the event of his death.
Major Herbert Cecil Buller D.S.O., Twice Mentioned in Despatches, Rifle Brigade, Temporary Lieutenant Colonel Commanding Officer, Patricia Light Infantry. Killed in action 2 June 1916, age 34. Grave III.A.7. Son of the late Admiral Sir Alexander Buller, G.C.B., and Lady Buller. He joined the Rifle Brigade in 1900 and by 1910 had reached the rank of Captain. He was appointed to the staff of the Governor-General of Canada as the aide-de-camp and in August 1914 joined the PPCLI. He took command of the PPCLI on the 21 March 1915 following the death of Lt Colonel Farquhar. He was wounded on 4 May, losing an eye due to a shrapnel splinter, but he returned to command the Battalion on 7 December 1915. He was killed in action at Sanctuary Wood during the German attack on 2 June 1916. The War Dairy recorded: ‘At 8.30am the enemy began shelling our front line and supports.. the bombardment lasted for five hours…. The enemy succeeded in capturing the front line of our right company No.1 the garrison having been almost annihilated….Our supports held on the right Warrington Avenue and Lovers Lane to Border Lane… Our casualties were heavy. In the evening the enemy evidently suspected a counter attack as they opened up rapid machine gun and rifle fire and an intense barrage on our rear…’ He was Mentioned in Despatches on 23 June 1915 and again on 15 June 1916.
Peter Pan
Second Lieutenant George Llewelyn Davies, 6th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps attached 4th Battalion Rifle Brigade, 80th Infantry Brigade, 27th Division. Killed in action 15 March 1915, age 21. Grave II.E.2. Son of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. He along with his four brothers were the inspiration for playwright Sir J.M. Barrie’s 'Peter Pan and the Lost Boys’ and the character of Mr George Darling was named after him. He was also the first cousin of the writer Daphne du Maurier, and uncle to the Davies boys his uncle Guy is buried in Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery. In a letter dated 11 March 1915 Barrie described du Maurier: ‘There was always something pathetic about him to me. He had lots of stern stuff in him, and yet always the mournful smile of one who could pretend that life was gay but knew it wasn’t. One of the most attractive personalities I have ever known.’ George and his brother Jack met Barrie when out for walks with their nurse Mary Hodgson in Kensington Gardens. George, Jack, and Peter, featured in a 1901 photo storybook ‘The Boy Castaways’ Barrie made during a shared family holiday and in 1904 the play ‘Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up', Peter is 10 years of age in the play, about the age George was when Barrie began writing the play in 1903. Barrie took some of the characteristics of Peter and individual Lost Boys from things the Davies boys said or did. Barries oral tales about babies who died and went to live in Neverland, the boy is reportedly to have said ‘To die will be an awfully big adventure’ and this became one of Peter Pans most memorable lines. Barrie supported the Davies family following the death of their father in 1907 and became their guardian following the death of their mother in 1910 he was known as ‘Uncle Jim’. George was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. On the outbreak of war George and his brother Peter enlisted and George was gazetted as a Second Lieutenant in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps.
On the 14 March the Germans blew a mine under the Mound and following a heavy artillery bombardment drove the defenders from their trenches and entered the village as well as capturing the Mound. At 3am on 15 March the Battalion was involved in an unsuccessful night attack to retake the German positions on the Mound. The Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry were to co-operate with the Battalion on their left east of the St Eloi to Ypres road. The Battalion attacked from the Bus House on the Voormezele to St Eloi road and due to delays they did not attack until 4.40am. One Company attacking the trench known as Rifle Brigade Trench on their right coming under intense German fire and despite this took the trench. A second Company went up the road to rush the Mound and received heavy fire from Barricade A and the houses all but four men had been killed or wounded. The reminder of the Company then rushed Barricade A and took the position. They then cleared Barricade B and the surrounding houses with a supporting Company that had been sent forward. The Germans then opened heavy rifle and machine gun fire from the Mound and Barricade D. Major Arthur Montague M King’s Company, held in reserve was called forward, and along with two companies of the 2nd Battalion Shropshires made an attack on the Mound. Major King was killed immediately and Lieutenant Reginald Hargreaves, Battalion bombing and sniping officer, was critically wounded and left behind on the road to the Mound. On the following night four of Hargreaves snipers went out into No Man’s land and found him, he had been shot through the lungs, right leg, his arm broken, and his left foot and right hand shattered. Due to confusion behind at the St Eloi crossroads, today the roundabout, and it almost being daylight it was decided to call off the attack. Major Billy Congreve V.C. was the nephew of Major Arthur Montague King and recounts how, when the 3rd Division relieved the 27 Division, he searched for his uncles body close to the Mound and found him on 4 May: ‘Got all the things off Kinkie’s body, (this was the family nickname for him), last night. He was simply riddled with bullets and, of course, very far gone. He must have walked into the machine-gun at least. I can’t account for the number of holes any other way. The body was in the ruined houses opposite mine-house and further forward than I had looked before; in fact, only about thirty yards from the German trench round the Mound… I think it’s too difficult to get the body back…’ He is listed on the Menin Gate Memorial. George wrote to Barrie before he was killed on 15 March 1915: ‘Dear Uncle Jim, I have just got your letter about Uncle Guy. You said it hasn’t made you think any more about the danger I am in. But I know it has. Do not try to let it. I take every care of myself that can decently be taken. And if I am going to stop a bullet, why should it be with a vital place?....It is very bad about Uncle Guy. I wonder how he was killed. As he was a colonel, I imagine his battalion was doing an attack. Poor Aunt Gwen. This war is a dreadful show. The ground is drying up fast now, and the weather far better…There have already been doings in various parts of the line, and I would rather be George Davies than Sir John French just now. He must have got some hard decisions in front of him. Well, let’s hope for a good change in the next month. Meanwhile dear Uncle Jim, you must carry on with your job of keeping up your courage. I will write every time I come out of action. We go up to the trenches in a few days again.
Yours affectionately, George *
2nd Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 13th Infantry Brigade, 5th Division. There were twenty nine men killed by a German mine explosion on 17 July 1915. Twenty four of the men are buried in VII.C.6 and who died on 17 July and there is a further two men who died on 18 July buried in VII.C.6. In total twenty nine men died with five unaccounted for. The Battalion was in the line at St Eloi and holding the trench Q1, this was located on the right of today’s St Eloi to Wytschaete road. Major Billy Congreve V.C. gave a description: ‘Went up to Q1 last night with Wavell… It was very interesting. We went up from Voormezeele to Bus House along the road. The most ‘bullety’ part of this bit is just as you come up the little rise from the stream towards the Bus House.’ He went out to Q1 through a hole in the parapet of Q2: ‘Walking up to Q1, one could see the black lump of the Mound looming up ahead… we went along the trench to mine-house which is over the road (St Eloi to Wytschaete road, but one hardly realises, as the road has been cut through and the breastwork built over it…’ St Eloi was an area of frequent mine explosions.
On 15 April Congreve records: ‘The Germans blew a big mine just in front of mine-house in Q1. They followed this up with very heavy shelling and rifle fire, but made no infantry attack.’ On the 17 July 1915, the Germans blew another mine in front of the parapet of Q1 at 2.45am. the War Diary of the 2nd Battalion KOYLI records: ‘The mine went up with a terrific force exploding under the Pavi Road and a ruined house. About 80’ of Q1 Trench was demolished & all occupants buried. Only 5 men of No.12 Platoon survived – falling Pavi & bricks which hurled 200 feet in the air caused many casualties in R2 & R3 trenches… Our casualties amounted to 111 (29 killed & 82 wounded. The 29 men killed were buried in our Cemetery in Voormezeele.’ Read more about mine warfare at St Eloi and the largest man-made explosion on 7 June 1917 The Mine Craters of Messines Ridge, Cratering the Ridge
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 five Boy Soldiers buried here. 13260 Private Frederick Bynam, 7th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment (Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own), 50th Infantry Brigade, 17th (Northern) Division. Killed in action 15 September 1915, age 17. Grave VIII.B.4. Son of Mrs. A. Bynam, of Stascombe Place, Piette Road, Guernsey. Epitaph: IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR DEAR SON HE DID NOT LIVE TO GROW OLD AS WE GROW OLDER. The Battalion was in the line between St Eloi to near Oosthoek with its flank not far from the Ypres-Comines Canal. The War diary recording ‘Nothing of importance’. 20264 Private Henry Edward Carter, 15th (Hampshire Yeomanry) Battalion, 122nd Infantry Brigade, 41st Division. Killed in action 13 November 1916, age 17. Grave XII.B.8. Son of Henry Edward and Elizabeth Carter, 7 Oliver's Buildings, Telegraph Street, Southsea, Portsmouth. Epitaph: NEVER SHALL HIS MEMORY FADE MOTHER. I wonder if his descendants have forgotten him. The Battalion was providing working parties for night work and also parties of 60 men for day work at Voormezeele. Between 1am and 5am ‘A’ and ‘C’ Companies in Voormezeele were relieved by ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies who were in Dickebusch. Relief was carried out on the road via Café Belge and completed before day break. Working parties for night work, were supplied. Casualties are not recorded however, being in a working party was a dangerous work at night and even more so during the day in the open. 10327 L/Cpl Martin Hicks, 1st Battalion Wiltshire Regiment, 7th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Division. Killed in action 11 May 1915, age 17. Grave XIV.L.5. Son of William and Edith Hicks, 53 New Kent Road, London, S.E.1. Epitaph: KEPT IN LOVING MEMORY. The Battalion was in the line in the trenches to the between St Eloi and Bois confluent Wood. They were relieved on 11 May by the Honourable Artillery Company with causalities of ‘1 man killed, 1 wounded.’ 12610 Cpl William George Port, 7th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment (Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own), 50th Infantry Brigade, 17th (Northern) Division. Killed in action 22 February 1916, age 17. Grave XII.A.14. The Battalion was back in the line at St Eloi and was occupying the trenches between St Eloi and Oosthoek once again. They were working on strengthening the trenches and enemy snipers were active. G/8689 Private William Dulgarians Crombie, 10th Battalion Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), 123rd Infantry Brigade, 41st Division. Killed in action 9 November 1916, age 16. Grave XII.B.8. Son of John Robinson Crombie, 28, Tennyson Road, Wimbledon, London. The Battalion was in hut billets near Reninghelst and providing working parties for the Royal Engineers. There is an error in the grave numbering. Crombie should be XII.B.9 not 8. He does not share a grave with Carter who is also listed above as buried in XII.B.8.
Cemeteries concentrated here
Eikhof Farm Cemetery, was located south of Oak Dump Cemetery and east of St Eloi. It contained nineteen British burials from June 1917. Elsenwalle Chateau Cemetery, this was located in the grounds of the chateau and contained thirty British burials who were killed between February to June 1915, mainly from 1st Battalion Wilshire Regiment and Honorable Artillery Company, both from 7th Brigade, 3rd Division. Haringhebeek Cemetery, Kemmel, this was located to the east of the La Laiterie Cemetery and contained thirteen British burials from 7 June 1917. Pheasant Wood Cemetery, this was located south-east of St Eloi on the Dammstrasse and contained thirteen British burials from July and August 1917. Vijverhoek Brasserie Cemetery, this was located on the northern edge of Dickebusch Lake near the road. It contained sixteen British burials, one Canadian, and one from New Zealand, all were killed during April, May and October 1918.
The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Cemetery Location
Voormezeele Enclosure No.3 is located 4 Kms south-west of Ieper town centre on the Ruusschaartstraat, a road leading from the Kemmelseweg (connecting Ieper to Kemmel N331). From Ieper town centre the Kemmelseweg is reached via the Rijselsestraat, through the Lille Gate (Rijselpoort) and straight on towards Armentieres (N365). 900 metres after the crossroads is the right hand turning onto the Kemmelseweg (made prominent by a railway level crossing). Turn right onto the Kemmelseweg and follow this road to the first crossroads, turn left here into Ruusschaartstraat. The Cemetery is located 1 Km after this junction on the left hand side of the road just before Voormezeele Dorp.
Burials
There are now 1,611 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in Voormezeele Enclosure No.3. 609 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 15 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of five casualties whose graves in Pheasant Wood Cemetery could not be found on concentration.
UK – 1481
Australian – 8
New Zealand – 2
Canadian – 100
South African – 1
Known unto God – 1
Unnamed – 612
There are Special Memorials to twelve British men and three Australians known or believed to be buried here. There is also a Special Memorial to five British men who had been buried in Pheasant Wood Cemetery and whose graves were destroyed and lost during the fighting.
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