ROISEL COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION

Roisel

Somme

France

General Directions: Roisel is a small town 11 kilometres east of Peronne. The Communal Cemetery is on the east side of the road to Villers-Faucon and the Cemetery Extension is immediately to the north of the Communal Cemetery.

Roisel town was occupied by British troops in April, 1917, and evacuated after a strong defence by the 66th (East Lancashire) Division in the evening of the 22nd March, 1918. It was retaken in the following September. Roisel Communal Cemetery Extension was begun by German troops, who buried immediately to the North of the Communal Cemetery. It was developed in October and November, 1918, by the 41st, 48th, 53rd and 58th Casualty Clearing Stations, and it was completed after the Armistice by the concentration of British and German graves from the country North, East and South of Roisel. The graves of 88 soldiers of the United States Army buried here in October, 1918, have been removed to another cemetery.

The following were among the burial grounds from which British graves were removed to the Extension: Bernes Churchyard, in which 49 soldiers of the 46th (North Midland) Division and the Royal Field Artillery were buried in September, 1918; and the German Extension, in which one soldier from the United Kingdom was buried in September, 1917. Hesbecourt Communal Cemetery Extension, in which 35 Australian soldiers and 28 from the United Kingdom were buried by the 59th (North Midland) Division in April, 1917, and by Australian units in September and October, 1918. L'Abbaye German Cemetery, Vermand, between the village of Vermand and the hamlet of Villecholles, which contained the graves of 300 German soldiers and ten from the United Kingdom and one from Canada who fell in April and May, 1917. Roisel Churchyard, in which one Royal Flying Corps officer was buried in August, 1916. Vermand Communal Cemetery German Extension, in which seven soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried by the enemy in March and April, 1918.

Victoria Cross: Second Lieutenant John Crawford Buchan, VC, 7th Bn. Attached 8th Bn. Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, killed in action 22/03/1918, plot II. I. 6.

Casualty Details: UK 735, Canada 6, Australia 107, South Africa 29, Germany 514, Total Burials; 1391

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