Flatiron Copse Cemetery, Mametz, Somme, France

FLATIRON COPSE CEMETERY

Mametz

Somme

France

GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.01978, Longitude: 2.7584

Image above © Carl Liversage @carl_liversage

Location Information

Flatiron Copse Cemetery is on the right hand side of D929, Amiens-Albert-Bapaume, 10 kilometres east of Albert.

From Albert take the right turn at Y junction (102nd Infantry Brigade Memorial). It is located in the D20 just south-west of Bazentin-le-Petit. From the D929 turn south (signposted Bazentin) and on reaching the D20 T-junction turn right: the cemetery is green-signposted immediately.

Historical Information

Flatiron Copse was the name given by the army to a small plantation a little to the east of Mametz Wood.

The ground was taken by the 3rd and 7th Divisions on 14 July 1916 and an advanced dressing station was established at the copse. The cemetery was begun later that month and it remained in use until April 1917. Two further burials were made in August 1918 and after the Armistice, more than 1,100 graves were brought in from the neighbouring battlefields and from smaller cemeteries, including:-

CATERPILLAR CEMETERY, MONTAUBAN, in "Caterpillar Wood". It contained the graves of 21 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in July 1916, and of whom 12 belonged to the 6th and 7th Gordons.

CROSS ROADS CEMETERY, BAZENTIN, near the cross-roads at the North end of Bazentin-le-Grand. Here were buried 15 soldiers from the United Kingdom and four from New Zealand, who fell in 1916-1917.

MAMETZ WOOD CEMETERY, outside the Western edge of Mametz Wood, in which 18 soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in 1916.

QUADRANGLE CEMETERY, BAZENTIN, between Bottom Wood and Mametz Wood, named from a small rectangular copse. Here were buried, in 1916, 32 soldiers from the United Kingdom and three from Australia, of whom 22 were artillerymen.

VALLEY CEMETERY, MONTAUBAN, between the Briqueterie and Maltzhorn Farm, in which 72 soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in August and September, 1916.

VILLA WOOD CEMETERIES No.1 and No.2, CONTALMAISON, near a small copse North of Mametz Wood. They contained the graves of 62 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in 1916.

Almost all the concentrated graves are those of men who died in the summer and autumn of 1916.

There are now 1,572 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 420 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 36 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and nine buried in Mametz Wood Cemetery whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

Total Burials: 1,572.

Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 1106, New Zealand 28, Australia 17, South Africa 1. Total 1,152.

Unidentified Casualties: 420.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker and Arthur James Scott Hutton

10523 Corporal, Edward Dwyer V. C., Cross of St. George (Russia)
1st Bn. East Surrey Regiment
3rd September 1916, aged 20.
Plot III. J. 3.

His headstone bears the inscription "We Know That He Abideth In Us"

Citation:

An extract from the "London Gazette," dated 21st May, 1915, records the following:-"For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty at "Hill 60" on the 20th April, 1915. When his trench was heavily attacked by German grenade throwers he climbed on to the parapet, and, although subjected to a hail of bombs at close quarters, succeeded in dispersing the enemy by the effective use of his hand grenades. Private Dwyer displayed great gallantry earlier on this day in leaving his trench, under heavy shell fire, to bandage his wounded comrades.

Headstone

Picture © Werner Van Caneghem

Picture © Geerhard Joos

Brothers

(L) The graves of the Tregaskis brothers, Leonard and Arthur, both killed on 7th July 1916 and now buried side by side.
Plot VI. G. 1 & 2

(C) The graves of the Hardwidge brothers, Harry and Thomas, both killed on 11th July 1916 and now buried side by side.
Plot VIII. F. 5 & 6

(R) The graves of the Philby brothers, Ernest and Herbert, both killed on 21st August 1916 and now buried side by side.
Plot I. D. 35 & 36

Leonard and Arthur Tegaskis

Henry and Thomas Hardwidge

Unfortunately there is no known image of the Philby brothers.

1919 - View of the area near Pozieres showing Mametz Wood and the German stronghold known as Gibraltar (far left). The Albert to Bapaume road and railway line are visible on the left. In the centre and on the right are two wooden memorial crosses. This area was the scene of severe fighting by Australian troops in July and August 1916. Gibraltar was a concrete tower, once part of a farmhouse, that was reinforced with steel grid and from which German machine-gun fire was able to cover all of the surrounding area. The stronghold, named Gibraltar by the British because of its strength, remained standing after Pozieres was reduced to rubble between 13-17 July 1916 and was eventually captured the same month by Australian forces.

Captain
Albert Baswitz, M. C., Twice Mentioned in Despatches
1st/22nd Bn. London Regiment
16th September 1916, aged 24.
Plot I. E. 13.

Son of Mr. H. Baswitz, of 40, Tamworth St., Fulham, London.

Captain
Caledon Robert John Radclyffe Dolling
2nd Bn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers
20th August 1916, aged 30.
Plot I. D. 39.

Captain
Henry Claude Drummond
7th Bn. Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
24th July 1916, aged 33.
Plot II. B. 14.

Son of James William and Williamina Macfie Drummond, of Westerlands, Stirling; husband of the late Kathleen Elizabeth Drummond.

Captain
George Leonard Goodes, M. C. and Bar.
4th Bn. London Regiment, (Royal Fusiliers) and 140th Trench Mortar Battery
6th October 1916, aged 35.
Plot VII. I. 5.

Son of Ebenezer Samuel and Francis Elizabeth Goodes, of Walthamstow, London.

6950 Gunner
Thomas Joseph Greenan
22nd Bde. Australian Field Artillery
31st July 1916, aged 25.
Plot VII. G. 5.

Son of Peter and Ellen Greenan, of 12, Loretto Terrace, Springfield Rd., Belfast, Ireland.

Born in Omagh, Ireland, but living in Melbourne, he enlisted on 3 July 1915 and was killed in action on 31 July 1916 at Mametz, France.

Lieutenant Colonel
Arthur Percival Hamilton, M. C.
The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment), attd. 19th Bn. London Regiment
15th September 1916, aged 32.
Plot VII. I. 2.

Son of the late Maj. P. F. P. Hamilton, R.A., and Mrs. Hamilton; husband of Kate G. Hamilton, of 42, Eaton Square, London.

Lieutenant
Frank Moran
9th Bn. attached to 2nd Bn. Royal Munster Fusiliers
23rd August 1916, aged 23.
Plot I. D. 46.

Son of the Rev. Francis and Mrs. Josephine Moran, of Grange House, Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone. Scholar of Trinity College, Dublin.

Second Lieutenant
E. J. Pusch
11th Bn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment
8th August 1916, aged 19.
Plot VII. B. 10.

Son of Emile Pusch, of 5, Albert Court, London. His brother Frederick Leopold Pusch also fell and is buried in Essex Farm Cemetery in Belgium.

542 Driver
Leonard Alexander Rial
1st Div. Amm. Col. Australian Field Artillery
22nd July 1916, aged 23.
Plot X. K. 2.

Son of George Horatio and Edith Rial, of 51, Auburn Rd., Auburn, Victoria, Australia. Born at Albury, New South Wales.

A clerk with the Dalgety Company, he enlisted on 24 August 1914 and embarked from Sydney aboard HMAT Argyllshire on 18 October 1914. He was killed in action 22 July 1916 at Pozieres in France and is buried at Flatiron Copse Cemetery, Mametz. Two of his family members also served with the AIF. They were, his brother, 105 Corporal Owen Campbell Rial, 37th Battalion, who died of wounds on 27 February 1917 at Armentieres, France; and his cousin, 6198 Lance Corporal Ronald James Rial, 19th Battalion, who was killed in action on 6 October 1917, at Passchendaele Ridge, Belgium.

5964 Private
Alexander Russell
12th Bn. Highland Light Infantry
13th September 1916
Plot IV. J. 3.

Resided at Chapelhall, enlisted at Holytown, Lanarkshire.

Picture courtesy of Joe O'Raw

Second Lieutenant
Arthur Percival Sargeant
9th Bn. Leicestershire Regiment
14th July 1916, aged 20.
Plot XI. B. 3.

Son of Mrs. Edith Sargeant, of 34, Brandwood Rd., King's Heath, Birmingham.