BERNAFAY WOOD BRITISH CEMETERY
Montauban
Somme
France
GPS Coordinates - Latitude: 50.01166, Longitude: 2.79339
Roll of Honour
Listed by Surname
Image above © Carl Liversage @carl_liversage
Location Information
Bernafay Wood British Cemetery is 10 kilometres east of Albert and 2 kilometres south of Longueval on the D197, in the direction of Maricourt.
Historical Information
Montauban village was taken by the 30th and 18th Divisions on 1 July 1916 and it remained in Commonwealth hands until the end of March 1918. It was retaken on 25 August 1918 by the 7th Buffs and the 11th Royal Fusiliers of the 18th Division.
The Bois De Bernafay is a pear-shaped wood close to the east end of Montauban village. It was taken on 3 and 4 July 1916 by the 9th (Scottish) Division. On 25 March 1918, in the retreat to the Ancre, the same Division was driven from the wood but recaptured it for a time. On 27 August 1918 it was finally regained by the 18th Division.
The cemetery was begun by a dressing station in August 1916 and used as a front-line cemetery until the following April. It contained at the Armistice 284 burials but was then increased when graves were brought in from Bernafay Wood North Cemetery and from the battlefields immediately east of the wood.
BERNAFAY WOOD NORTH CEMETERY was opposite the North edge of the wood, a little East of the Longueval - Maricourt road. It was begun by an Advanced Dressing Station, and used from July to October 1916. It contained the graves of 80 soldiers from the United Kingdom and 1 German prisoner.
Bernafay Wood British Cemetery now contains 945 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 417 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 11 soldiers known or believed to be buried here. Other special memorials commemorate 12 soldiers buried in Bernafay Wood North Cemetery whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.
Total Burials: 945.
Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 401, Australia 124, New Zealand 2, South Africa 1. Total 528.
Unidentified Casualties: United Kingdom 413, South Africa 3, India 1. Total 417.
The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker and Arthur James Scott Hutton
Bernafay Wood British Cemetery is 10 kilometres east of Albert and 2 kilometres south of Longueval on the D197, in the direction of Maricourt.
Historical Information
Montauban village was taken by the 30th and 18th Divisions on 1 July 1916 and it remained in Commonwealth hands until the end of March 1918. It was retaken on 25 August 1918 by the 7th Buffs and the 11th Royal Fusiliers of the 18th Division.
The Bois De Bernafay is a pear-shaped wood close to the east end of Montauban village. It was taken on 3 and 4 July 1916 by the 9th (Scottish) Division. On 25 March 1918, in the retreat to the Ancre, the same Division was driven from the wood but recaptured it for a time. On 27 August 1918 it was finally regained by the 18th Division.
The cemetery was begun by a dressing station in August 1916 and used as a front-line cemetery until the following April. It contained at the Armistice 284 burials but was then increased when graves were brought in from Bernafay Wood North Cemetery and from the battlefields immediately east of the wood.
BERNAFAY WOOD NORTH CEMETERY was opposite the North edge of the wood, a little East of the Longueval - Maricourt road. It was begun by an Advanced Dressing Station, and used from July to October 1916. It contained the graves of 80 soldiers from the United Kingdom and 1 German prisoner.
Bernafay Wood British Cemetery now contains 945 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 417 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 11 soldiers known or believed to be buried here. Other special memorials commemorate 12 soldiers buried in Bernafay Wood North Cemetery whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.
Total Burials: 945.
Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 401, Australia 124, New Zealand 2, South Africa 1. Total 528.
Unidentified Casualties: United Kingdom 413, South Africa 3, India 1. Total 417.
The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker and Arthur James Scott Hutton
Australian graves in the Bernafay Wood Cemetery during the war
Images in this gallery © Werner Van Caneghem
Bernafay Wood Looking Towards Trones Wood by Edward Handley-Read.
image: a view across a desolate and battle-scarred Somme landscape. There are flooded shell holes in the foreground, and clouds of smoke rising from the land in the distance. There are the shattered tree trunks of Bernafay Wood jutting out from the ground, an indication of what used to be a woodland area.
© IWM (Art.IWM ART 4484)
British troops returning from the trenches in limbers near Bernafay Wood, November 1916. © IWM Q 1613
British troops returning from the trenches near Bernafay Wood, November 1916. © IWM Q 1615
Images in this gallery © Johan Pauwels
Bernafay Wood Cemetery in the mid 1920's. This view, which looks towards the entrance and the wood itself, shows the (now removed) shelters. (See below)
1960. Note the shelters have been removed. ©CWGC
1964. ©CWGC
Image above © Carl Liversage @carl_liversage
