STE. MARIE CEMETERY

Le Havre

Seine-Maritime

France

General Directions: Ste. Marie Cemetery is one of the town cemeteries, but it is actually situated in the commune of Graville-St. Honorine. It stands on the ridge overlooking Le Havre from the north and is north of the N.182.

During the First World War, Le Havre was one of the ports at which the British Expeditionary Force disembarked in August 1914. Except for a short interval during the German advance in 1914, it remained No.1 Base throughout the war and by the end of May 1917, it contained three general and two stationary hospitals, and four convalescent depots.

The first Commonwealth burials took place in Division 14 of Ste Marie Cemetery in mid August 1914. Burials in Divisions 19, 3, 62 and 64 followed successively.

A memorial in Plot 62 marks the graves of 24 casualties from the hospital ship 'Salta' and her patrol boat, sunk by a mine on 10 April 1917. The memorial also commemorates by name the soldiers, nurses and merchant seamen lost from the 'Salta' whose bodies were not recovered, and those lost in the sinking of the hospital ship 'Galeka' (mined on 28 October 1916) and the transport ship 'Normandy' (torpedoed on 25 January 1918), whose graves are not known.

There are now 1,690 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in this cemetery, 8 of which are unidentified.

During the Second World War, Le Havre was one of the evacuation ports for the British Expeditionary force in 1940 and towards the end of the war it was used as a supply and reinforcement base.

There are now 364 burials of the Second World War here,(59 of them unidentified) in Divisions 64 and 67 of the cemetery. The Commonwealth plots in the cemetery were designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield

Victoria Cross: 355014 Serjeant William Herbert Waring, VC, MM, 25th Bn. (Montgomery and Welch Horse Yeomanry), Royal Welch Fusiliers, died of wounds 08/10/1918, aged 33. Division 62. V. I. 3.

Citation: An extract from the "London Gazette," dated 31st Jan., 1919, records the following:- "He led an attack against enemy machine guns and, in face of devastating fire from the flank and front, rushed a strong point single handed, bayoneting four of the garrison and capturing twenty others with their guns; then under heavy shell and machine gun fire, he re-organized his men, led and inspired them for another 400 yards, when he fell mortally wounded."

Shot at Dawn: 3019 Lance Serjeant A. Wickings, 9th Bn. Rifle Brigade, executed for murder 07/03/1918. Division 62/1/K3.

Shot at Dawn: 253617 Gunner F. O. Wills, 50th Trench Mortar Battery, Royal Field Artillery, executed for murder 27/05/1919. Division 64/6/E5.

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.

Further Information: The war graves within this cemetery are in 5 separate plots (4, 1914-1918 and 1, 1939-1945) scattered throughout the large communal cemetery, the two larger plots are to be found at either end of the cemetery and two smaller plots in the middle section, the other (WW2) plot can be found to the left of the cemetery upon entering through the main entrance.

Casualty Details: UK 1433, Canada 101, Australia 131, New Zealand 7, South Africa 14, India 3, Total Burials: 1689

Salta Memorial

The memorial in Plot 62 marks the graves of 24 casualties from the hospital ship 'Salta' and her patrol boat, sunk by a mine on 10 April 1917. The memorial also commemorates by name the soldiers, nurses and merchant seamen lost from the 'Salta' whose bodies were not recovered, and those lost in the sinking of the hospital ship 'Galeka' (mined on 28 October 1916) and the transport ship 'Normandy' (torpedoed on 25 January 1918), whose graves are not known.

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