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At the end of the Great War
there were possibly more than 500 military cemeteries in
the area covered by the Ypres Salient. Some were only a
handful of graves, while others were large sites where
hundreds if not thousands of soldiers were buried. After
the war the then Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves
Commission set about creating permanent cemeteries and
many of the original ones were moved in to larger burial
grounds.
There are
three main types of military cemetery at Ypres:
Original wartime
cemeteries:
These are cemeteries which were made on or just behind
the battlefield while the war was still on. Many of
them were begun by particular regiments, brigades or
divisions and as such they are ‘comrades
cemeteries’. Only a few of these still exist – 1/DCLI
Cemetery on the Bluff is a good example. Started by
men of the 1st Battalion Duke of
Cornwall’s Light Infantry in April 1915, fifty one
officers and men from this unit are buried here –
out of a total of ninety-nine graves.
Post-war concentration
cemeteries:
With more than 500 British military cemeteries around
Ypres by 1919, maintaining them all was an impossible
task. The Imperial War Graves Commission therefore
decided to close a large number of them, and move the
graves into larger burial grounds, often specially
created at key sites on the battlefield. Tyne Cot
Cemetery at Passchendaele is a classic example. The
largest British military in the world with over 11,000
graves, there were only a handful of burials on this
site at the end of the war. The IWGC moved in the
11,000 from all over the Ypres battlefield and as such
almost every regiment and each of the four battles of
Ypres are represented here.
Behind the lines
cemeteries:
These are usually war-time created cemeteries on the
sites of former Advanced Dressing Stations, Casualty
Clearing Stations and Field Hospitals. Many soldiers
died of their wounds and were buried in cemeteries
like these. The most important of them is
Lijessenthoek Military Cemetery near Poperinghe. With
nearly 10,000 graves it is the second largest cemetery
at Ypres next to Tyne Cot. However, were as most of
the graves at Tyne Coy are unknowns, those at
Lijessenthoek are almost all knowns. Among them are
simple Privates, Gunners and Sappers, and also high
ranking officers: Lieutenant Colonel, Brigadier
Generals and even a Major General – Major General
Mercer who died commanding the 3rd
(Canadian) Division in June 1916.
