Wimereux Communal Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais - Hauts-de-France

Cemetery Details

Location Rue Jean Moulin, Wimereux, Pas-de-Calais - Hauts-de-France, France
Co‑ordinates N50.773999, E1.61466
Description

Location Information
Wimereux is a small town situated approximately 5 kilometres north of Boulogne. From the centre of Boulogne take the A16 to Calais and exit at junction 33. Follow the D242 into Wimereux and at the first roundabout in town, take the third exit, continuing on the D242 and after approximately 200 yards, turn left into a one way road. The Cemetery lies at the end of this road. The Commonwealth War Graves are situated to the rear of the Communal Cemetery. Because of the sandy nature of the soil, the headstones lie flat upon the graves.

History Information
Wimereux was the headquarters of the Queen Mary's Army Auxilliary Corps during the First World War and in 1919 it became the General Headquarters of the British Army. From October 1914 onwards, Boulogne and Wimereux formed an important hospital centre and until June 1918, the medical units at Wimereux used the communal cemetery for burials, the south-eastern half having been set aside for Commonwealth graves, although a few burial were also made among the civilian graves. By June 1918, this half of the cemetery was filled, and subsequent burials from the hospitals at Wimereux were made in the new military cemetery at Terlincthun. During the Second World War, British Rear Headquarters moved from Boulogne to Wimereux for a few days in May 1940, prior to the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk. Thereafter, Wimereux was in German hands and the German Naval Headquarters were situated on the northern side of the town. After D-Day, as Allied forces moved northwards, the town was shelled from Cap Griz-Nez, and was re-taken by the Canadian 1st Army on 22 September 1944. Wimereux Communal Cemetery contains 2,847, Commonwealth burials of the First World War, two of them unidentified. Buried among them is Lt.-Col. John McCrae, author of the poem "In Flanders Fields." There are also five French and a plot of 170 German war graves. The cemetery also contains 14 Second World War burials, six of them unidentified. The Commonwealth section was designed by Charles Holden.

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Names

Showing 8 people of interest from cemetery

BULLOUGH, Albert Benjamin

Service number 22
Private
34th Infantry Battalion
AIF WW1
Born Jul 1892

LEE, Albert

Service number 6628
Private
6th Infantry Battalion
AIF WW1
Born 17 Jun 1896

POTTER, Frank Hales

Service number 153
Lieutenant
10th Machine Gun Company
AIF WW1
Born 16 May 1890

BARR, Gilbert Robert

Service number 5995
Private
16th Infantry Battalion (WW1)
AIF WW1
Born 6 Aug 1879

GANDY, John Frederick

Service number 3739
Private
59th Infantry Battalion
AIF WW1
Born 28 Feb 1893

MURRAY, Lindsay Bertram

Service number 3555
Lance Corporal
53rd Infantry Battalion
AIF WW1
Born 8 Oct 1892

DODEMAIDE, Arthur Robert

Service number 3312
Private
14th Infantry Battalion
AIF WW1
Born 1893

SHERIDAN, Harry Heaslip

Service number 960A
Driver
12th Field Artillery Brigade
AIF WW1
Born 1892

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