FINS NEW BRITISH CEMETERY

Sorel-le-Grand

Somme

France

General Directions: Fins is a village on the road between Cambrai and Peronne. The British Cemetery is a little south-east of the village in the district of Sorel Le Grand on the right hand side of the road to Heudicourt.

The villages of Fins and Sorel were occupied at the beginning of April, 1917, in the German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line. They were lost on the 23rd March, 1918, after a stubborn defence of Sorel by the 6th Kings Own Scottish Borderers and the staff of the South African Brigade; and they were regained in the following September. The first British burials at Fins were carried out in the Churchyard and the Churchyard Extension, and the New British Cemetery was not begun until July, 1917. It was used by fighting units (especially the 40th, 61st (South Midland) and 9th (Scottish) Divisions) and Field Ambulances until March, 1918, when it comprised about 590 graves in Plots I to IV. It was then used by the Germans, who added 255 burials, including 26 British, in Plots IV, V, and VI. In September and October, 1918, about 73 British soldiers were buried by the 33rd and other Divisions, partly in Plots I and II, but mainly in Plots V and VI. Lastly, Plots VII and VIII were made, and other Plots completed, by the concentration of 591 graves after Armistice from Fins Churchyard Extension and other cemeteries and from the surrounding battlefields. There are now 1289, 1914-18 Commonwealth war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these 208 are unidentified, and special memorials are erected to nine soldiers from the United Kingdom who are believed to be buried among them. Another special memorial records the name of a soldier from the United Kingdom, buried in Fins Churchyard Extension, whose grave could not be found on concentration. Nine graves in Plot VIII, Row E, identified as a whole but not individually, are marked by headstones bearing the words: "Buried near this spot." There are also 277 Foreign National casualties commemorated here. The cemetery covers an area of 4,524 square metres and is enclosed by a brick wall on three sides. The cemeteries from which graves were concentrated to Fins New British Cemetery were the following:- Equancourt Churchyard, now closed, where three soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in 1917 and 1918. Fins Churchyard, now closed, in which nine soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in April, 1917. Fins Churchyard Extension, which was on the North side of the churchyard, within the enclosure of a house. It contained the graves of 121 soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Canada, who fell in April July, 1917, and one German soldier who fell in March, 1918. Sorel-le-Grand German Cemetery, on the West side of the village, opposite the Communal Cemetery. Here were buried, some by the enemy and some by their comrades, 17 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in 1916-18.

Shot at Dawn: Private H J Knight of the 1st Royal West Surrey Regiment is buried in plot 6. E. 20. he was executed for desertion on 6/10/1918.

The mass pardon of 306 British Empire soldiers executed for certain offences during the Great War was enacted in section 359 of the Armed Forces Act 2006, which came into effect on royal assent on 8 November 2006.

Casualty Details: UK 1193, Canada 5, Australia 2, New Zealand 3, South Africa 87, Germany 233, Total Burials: 1523

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