CATERPILLAR VALLEY (NEW ZEALAND) MEMORIAL
Longueval
Somme
France
GPS Coordinates - Latitude: 50.02619, Longitude: 2.792
Location Information
Longueval is a village approximately 13 kilometres east of Albert and 10 kilometres south of Bapaume.
The Memorial is situated on a terrace in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, which lies a short distance west of Longueval, on the south side of the road to Contalmaison.
Historical Information
Caterpillar Valley was the name given by the army to the long valley which rises eastwards, past "Caterpillar Wood", to the high ground at Guillemont.
The ground was captured, after very fierce fighting, in the latter part of July 1916. It was lost in the German advance of March 1918 and recovered by the 38th (Welsh) Division on 28 August 1918, when a little cemetery was made (now Plot 1 of this cemetery) containing 25 graves of the 38th Division and the 6th Dragoon Guards. After the Armistice, this cemetery was hugely increased when the graves of more than 5,500 officers and men were brought in from other small cemeteries, and the battlefields of the Somme. The great majority of these soldiers died in the autumn of 1916 and almost all the rest in August or September 1918.
CATERPILLAR VALLEY CEMETERY now contains 5,571 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 3,798 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 32 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and to three buried in McCormick's Post Cemetery whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.
Total Burials: 5,573.
Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 1,588, New Zealand 125, Australia 55, South Africa 7. Total 1,775.
Unidentified Casualties: 3,798.
On 6 November 2004, the remains of an unidentified New Zealand soldier were entrusted to New Zealand at a ceremony held at the Longueval Memorial, France. The remains had been exhumed by staff of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission from Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, France, Plot 14, Row A, Grave 27 and were later laid to rest within the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, at the National War Memorial, Wellington, New Zealand.
On the east side of the cemetery is the CATERPILLAR VALLEY (NEW ZEALAND) MEMORIAL, commemorating 1,205 officers and men of the New Zealand Division who died in the Battles of the Somme in 1916, and whose graves are not known.
Commemorated: New Zealand 1,205.
This is one of seven memorials in France and Belgium to those New Zealand soldiers who died on the Western Front and whose graves are not known. The memorials are all in cemeteries chosen as appropriate to the fighting in which the men died.
Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Herbert Baker and Arthur James Scott Hutton
23339 Private
Frank Bovett
1st Bn. Auckland Regiment, N. Z. E. F.
28th September 1916.
Husband of Mrs. L. E. E. Bovett, of Christchurch.
Frank Bovett
1st Bn. Auckland Regiment, N. Z. E. F.
28th September 1916.
Husband of Mrs. L. E. E. Bovett, of Christchurch.
8/3213 Private
William Henry Clack
1st Bn. Otago Regiment, N.Z.E.F.
25th September 1916.
Son of Mr. W. H. Clack (solicitor), of Heriot, Otago.
Picture courtesy of Kathleen Fryer
William Henry Clack
1st Bn. Otago Regiment, N.Z.E.F.
25th September 1916.
Son of Mr. W. H. Clack (solicitor), of Heriot, Otago.
Picture courtesy of Kathleen Fryer
24/386 Rifleman
William Clement Augustus Cornes
2nd Bn. 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade
30th September 1916, aged 23.
Son of William John and Charlotte Cornes, of Muirs Reefs, Te Puke, Auckland. Native of Te Aroha, Thames.
William Clement Augustus Cornes
2nd Bn. 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade
30th September 1916, aged 23.
Son of William John and Charlotte Cornes, of Muirs Reefs, Te Puke, Auckland. Native of Te Aroha, Thames.
24/1018 Rifleman
Harold William Davis
2nd Bn. 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade
15th September 1916, aged 23.
Son of Hubert William and Eliza Davis, of Marne Rd., Papakura, Auckland.
Harold William Davis
2nd Bn. 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade
15th September 1916, aged 23.
Son of Hubert William and Eliza Davis, of Marne Rd., Papakura, Auckland.
23/478 Private
Horace Alfred Lane
2nd Bn. Auckland Regiment, N. Z. E. F.
15th September 1916.
Son of Mr. and Mrs. D. G. Lane, of Rawene, Hokianga, Auckland.
Horace Alfred Lane
2nd Bn. Auckland Regiment, N. Z. E. F.
15th September 1916.
Son of Mr. and Mrs. D. G. Lane, of Rawene, Hokianga, Auckland.
9/165 Corporal
William Nichol McIntyre
New Zealand Pioneer Battalion
15th September 1916, aged 26.
Son of John and Beatrice McIntyre, of 16, Nile St., Timaru.
William Nichol McIntyre
New Zealand Pioneer Battalion
15th September 1916, aged 26.
Son of John and Beatrice McIntyre, of 16, Nile St., Timaru.
8/4192 Private
Robert Hugh McKinnon
2nd Bn. Otago Regiment, N. Z. E. F.
15th September 1916.
Son of Mrs. A. McKinnon, of Whiterig, Gore, Southland.
Robert Hugh McKinnon
2nd Bn. Otago Regiment, N. Z. E. F.
15th September 1916.
Son of Mrs. A. McKinnon, of Whiterig, Gore, Southland.
11105 Private
Malcolm Philips
1st Bn. Wellington Regiment, N. Z. E. F.
28th September 1916, aged 20.
Son of Henry and Mary Philips, of Corrella Rd., Belmont, Takapuna, Auckland.
Malcolm Philips
1st Bn. Wellington Regiment, N. Z. E. F.
28th September 1916, aged 20.
Son of Henry and Mary Philips, of Corrella Rd., Belmont, Takapuna, Auckland.
12/621 Private
Albert Ridgers
2nd Bn. Auckland Regiment, N. Z. E. F.
21st September 1916, aged 38.
Son of the late George and Elizabeth Ridgers.
Albert Ridgers
2nd Bn. Auckland Regiment, N. Z. E. F.
21st September 1916, aged 38.
Son of the late George and Elizabeth Ridgers.
12/636 Private
Thomas Stancliffe
1st Bn. Auckland Regiment, N. Z. E. F.
26th September 1916, aged 31.
Son of John Richard and Sarah Ann Stancliffe, of Donnelley's Gossing, Dargaville, Auckland. Native of Hokianga, Auckland. Also served at Gallipoli.
Thomas Stancliffe
1st Bn. Auckland Regiment, N. Z. E. F.
26th September 1916, aged 31.
Son of John Richard and Sarah Ann Stancliffe, of Donnelley's Gossing, Dargaville, Auckland. Native of Hokianga, Auckland. Also served at Gallipoli.
This gallery ©Werner Van Caneghem
14th July 1916; Battle of Bazentin Ridge. Refreshment caravans for the use of the walking wounded. On the left hand one is the sign of the 9th Scottish Division. (Capture of Longueval). © IWM Q 164
Mutilated bodies of dead Scottish soldiers on the battlefield near Longueval, March 1918. © IWM Q 42245
Erecting a memorial cross to "New Zealand soldiers who fell during the Battle of the Somme," at Factory Corner - a little West of the crossing of the roads from Eaucourt-L'Abbaye to Gueudecourt and from Flers to Ligny-Thilloy. This place, which had been a German Headquarters for Artillery and Engineers and had a German Cemetery, was taken by the 1st Canterbury Infantry Regiment on the 25th September, 1916, and again by the 7th East Yorks on the 27th August, 1918.
A post war image of the New Zealand Memorial at Factory Corner, this would later be removed and many of those it commemorated would be named on the Caterpillar Valley New Zealand Memorial.
1963 - ©CWGC
