Gordon Dump Cemetery, Ovillers-la Boisselle

Cemetery Details

Location Ovillers-La Boisselle, Somme - Hauts-de-France, France
Co‑ordinates N50.02056, E2.70735
Description

Location Information
Gordon Dump Cemetery is 2 kilometres north-east of Albert, on the right hand side of D929 Albert-Bapaume. At Y junction (102nd Infantry Brigade Memorial) nearby the Routiers restaurant, turn right onto D20 and follow through Ovillers/La Boisselle. After 2 kilometres the Cemetery is signposted onto a 300 metre grass track.

History Information
On 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the 8th Division attacked Ovillers and the 34th Division La Boisselle. The villages were not captured, but ground was won between them and to the south of La Boisselle. On 4 July, the 19th (Western) Division cleared La Boisselle and on 7 July the 12th (Eastern) and 25th Divisions gained part of Ovillers, the village being cleared by the 48th (South Midland) Division on 17 July. The two villages were lost during the German advance in March 1918, but they were retaken on the following 24 August by the 38th (Welsh) Division. Plot I of the Cemetery was made by fighting units after 10 July 1916 and closed in September when it contained the graves of 95 soldiers, mainly Australian. It was called variously Gordon (or Gordon's) Dump Cemetery or Sausage Valley Cemetery, from the name given to the broad, shallow valley that runs down from it to Becourt. The remainder of the cemetery was formed after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the 1916 battlefields immediately surrounding the cemetery. There are now 1,676 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 1,053 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 34 casualties known or believed to be buried among them.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

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Names

Showing 8 people of interest from cemetery

BARTLESON, John Henry

Service number 5515
Gunner
1st Field Artillery Brigade
AIF WW1
Born 1897

CRACKNELL, Arthur William

Service number 8446
Driver
6th Field Artillery Brigade
AIF WW1
Born 18 Nov 1870

CHAMBERS, Leslie Keith

Captain
17th Infantry Battalion
AIF WW1
Born 26 Jun 1894

MARTIN, George Henry

Service number 176
Gunner
Born 10 Jan 1888

KUHLMORGEN, Harry Moritz

Service number 1959
Private
18th Infantry Battalion
AIF WW1
Born Dec 1894

HUNT, George Bruce Fletcher

Service number 2672
Private
17th Infantry Battalion
AIF WW1
Born 30 Jun 1897

REID, Mersey Albert

Service number 3286
Private
17th Infantry Battalion
AIF WW1
Born Dec 1890

GRIFFITHS, John Tudor

Service number 5100
Private
9th Infantry Battalion
AIF WW1
Born 1898

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