Thursday, 5 November 2009

Loos British Cemetery, France


The Loos Memorial forms the side and back of Dud Corner Cemetery and commemorates over 20,000 officers and men who have no known grave, who fell in the area from the River Lys to the old southern boundary of the First Army, east and west of Grenay.  The name "Dud Corner" is believed to be due to the large number of unexploded enemy shells found in the neighbourhood after the Armistice.

The only burials here during hostilities were those of four Officers of the 9th Black Watch and one Private of the 8th Royal Dublin Fusiliers, close to Plot III, Row B; the remainder of the graves were brought in later from small cemeteries and isolated positions near Loos and to the North.  The regimental memorials brought to the Cemetery included those of the 10th Scottish Rifles and the 17th London Regiment, dating from the Battle of Loos, and those of the Royal Montreal Regiment and the Royal Highlanders of Canada, dating from the Battle of Hill 70 in August, 1917. Special memorials are erected in this Cemetery to twelve soldiers of the 2nd Welch Regiment, killed in action on the 12th October, 1915, and buried in Crucifix Cemetery, Loos, whose graves could not be found on concentration.

The more important of the small cemeteries concentrated into Dud Corner Cemetery were the following: Tosh Cemetery, Loos, on the North side of the village, close to the communication trench called Tosh Alley. It contained the graves of 171 soldiers from the United Kingdom (118 of whom were Irish) and five from Canada. It was used from October, 1915, to September, 1917. Crucifix Cemetery, Loos a little West of Tosh Cemetery. It was used from September, 1915, to May, 1916, and it contained the graves of 53 soldiers from the United Kingdom. Le Rutoire British Cemetery, Vermelles, close to Le Rutoire Farm, which is on Loos Plain, near the village of Vermelles. It was used in 1915, and contained the graves of 82 soldiers from the United Kingdom and six French soldiers.

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