BÉTHUNE TOWN CEMETERY
Pas De Calais
France
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.53674, Longitude: 2.64277
Location Information
Béthune is a town 29 kilometres north of Arras.
The cemetery can easily be found, from any point in Béthune, by following the French signs indicating 'CIMETIÈRE NORD'.
More precisely, from the town centre, turn right in front of the Tribunal and second right at the bottom of the road down to the cul-de-sac where the cemetery will be found.
Historical Information
For much of the First World War, Béthune was comparatively free from bombardment and remained an important railway and hospital centre, as well as a corps and divisional headquarters. The 33rd Casualty Clearing Station was in the town until December 1917. Early in 1918, Béthune began to suffer from constant shell fire and in April 1918, German forces reached Locon, five kilometres to the north. The bombardment of 21 May did great damage to the town and it was not till October that pressure from the Germans was relaxed.
Béthune Town Cemetery contains 3,004 Commonwealth burials of the First World War,11 being unidentified. This includes 26 men of the 1/8th Manchester Regiment who were killed by a bomb on 22 December 1917 while marching to rest billets. Second World War burials number 19, 2 being unidentified. There are also 122 French and 87 German war graves, 37 of the German burials are unidentified.
Total Burials in Commonwealth Plots: 3,233.
World War One Commonwealth Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 2,913, Canada 55, India 25. Total 2,993.
World War One Other Nationalities Identified Casualties: France 122, Germany 50. Total 172.
World War One Commonwealth Unidentified Casualties: 11.
World War One Other Nationalities Unidentified Casualties: Germany 38.
World War Two Commonwealth Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 15, Canada 2. Total 17.
World War Two Commonwealth Unidentified Casualties: 2.
The Commonwealth section of the cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and George Hartley Goldsmith
Dedications
40059 Private Leonard Horace Evans, 11th Bn. Essex Regiment, 28th December 1916, aged 35. Son of Tomas and Ann Evans of Foxearth, Essex
Remembered by great niece, Juliet Keel
41077 Corporal Frederick John Thomas Hutchinson, Royal Field Artillery, Y3rd Trench Mortar Battery. 6th February 1917, aged 29.
Remembered by The Hutchinson Family
Images in gallery below © Werner Van Caneghem
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Lieutenant Frank Alexander De Pass, V. C. & Mentioned in Despatches
34th Prince Albert Victor's Own Poona Horse,
killed in action 25th November 1914 aged 27.
Plot I. A. 24.
Born on 26 April 1887 to Eliot and Beatrice de Pass, of 23, Queen's Gate Terrace, Kensington, London. Born in London. Inscription on tomb quoted from a sonnet by his Rugby school-fellow, Rupert Brooke. ". . . . . . . Loved. Gone proudly friended.".
His headstone bears the inscription "Son Of Eliot And Beatrice De Pass, Born 26th April 1887"".......Loved, Gone, Proudly Friended"
Citation:
An extract from "The London Gazette," No. 29074, dated 16th Feb., 1915, records the following:-"For conspicuous bravery near Festubert on the 24th November, in entering a German sap and destroying a traverse in the face of the enemy's bombs, and for subsequently rescuing, under heavy fire, a wounded man who was lying exposed in the open."
Images in gallery below © Werner Van Caneghem
There are 19 Commonwealth World War Two Burials in this Cemetery, 2 are Unidentified
Pictures © Werner Van Caneghem
Shot at Dawn Burials
(Pictures © Werner Van Caneghem)
20101 Private Ernest Bryant, 10th Bn. Cheshire Regiment, executed for desertion 27th October 1917, aged 33. Plot VI. H. 3. A gentleman’s servant in civilian life, he was wounded in both legs early in the Somme offensive. On return to his unit, he made off during training exercises, but was arrested 4 days later in Boulogne. On again being returned to his unit, Bryant again absconded just before going into the line. When arrested in Bailleul 9 days later, he gave false particulars of identity. (Putkowski, p 211)
11967 Private R. Morgan, 2nd Bn. Welsh Regiment, executed for murder 15th February 1915. Plot IV. A. 17.
12942 Lance Corporal William Price, 2nd Bn. Welsh Regiment, executed for murder 15th February 1915, aged 41. Plot IV. A. 18.
On 20 January 1915, the regiment was engaged in digging trenches near Béthune. It was snowing, & the Battalion War Diary records the death of the regimental goat from heart failure. During the evening, Morgan & Price got drunk & shot their Company Sergeant Major. CSM Hayes died the next day: he had enlisted at 14, & seen 18 years’ service, including action in the Boer War. All 3 men, the victim & the murderers, are buried in the same cemetery, the Register giving the cause of death of the victim as ‘accidental injuries’. In 1929, the book ‘Goodbye To All That’ by Robert Graves gives a rather different account but he must have been relying on secondary sources. (Putkowski, pp. 33-34)
11967 Private R. Morgan, 2nd Bn. Welsh Regiment, executed for murder 15th February 1915. Plot IV. A. 17.
12942 Lance Corporal William Price, 2nd Bn. Welsh Regiment, executed for murder 15th February 1915, aged 41. Plot IV. A. 18.
On 20 January 1915, the regiment was engaged in digging trenches near Béthune. It was snowing, & the Battalion War Diary records the death of the regimental goat from heart failure. During the evening, Morgan & Price got drunk & shot their Company Sergeant Major. CSM Hayes died the next day: he had enlisted at 14, & seen 18 years’ service, including action in the Boer War. All 3 men, the victim & the murderers, are buried in the same cemetery, the Register giving the cause of death of the victim as ‘accidental injuries’. In 1929, the book ‘Goodbye To All That’ by Robert Graves gives a rather different account but he must have been relying on secondary sources. (Putkowski, pp. 33-34)
