London Cemetery and Extension, High Wood, Longueval, Somme, France

LONDON CEMETERY AND EXTENSION, HIGH WOOD

Longueval

Somme

France

General Directions: Longueval is a village 40 kilometres north-east of Amiens and 12 kilometres east-north-east of Albert, a town on the D929 road from Amiens to Bapaume and Cambrai. From the D929 direction Bapaume-Albert take the 2nd turning for Martinpuich and continue along the D6 direction Longueval, for 2 kilometres. London Cemetery and Extension will be found on the right hand side of the road.

High Wood was fiercely fought over during the Battle of the Somme until cleared by 47th (London) Division on 15 September 1916. It was lost during the German advance of April 1918, but retaken the following August. The original London Cemetery at High Wood was begun when 47 men of the 47th Division were buried in a large shell hole on 18 and 21 September 1916. Other burials were added later, mainly of officers and men of the 47th Division who died on 15 September 1916, and at the Armistice the cemetery contained 101 graves. The cemetery was then greatly enlarged when remains were brought in from the surrounding battlefields, but the original battlefield cemetery is preserved intact within the larger cemetery, now know as the London Cemetery and Extension. The cemetery, one of five in the immediate vicinity of Longueval which together contain more than 15,000 graves, is the third largest cemetery on the Somme with 3,871 First World War burials, 3,112 of them unidentified.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker

Casualty Details: UK 3339, Canada 162, Australia 300, New Zealand 35, South Africa 33, India 2, Germany 2, France 2,

Total Burials: 3769

2064 Acting Coy. Sergeant Major

Stanley Alistair Creek

20th Bn. London Regiment

15/09/1916, aged 25.

Plot 1A. D. 18.

Son of Joseph Henry Creek and Catherine Ann Creek, of 55, Elgin Rd., Croydon, Surrey.

8/2502 Captain

Lancelot Shadwell Jennings

Otago Regiment, N. Z. E. F.

15/09/1916, aged 28.

Son of the late Charles William Jennings and Agnes Lavinia Jennings and husband of Bella Dytes MacIntosh MacCallum (nee Cross, formerly Jennings) of Edinburgh.

Plot II. C. 2.