GRÉVILLERS BRITISH CEMETERY
Pas De Calais
France
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.10774, Longitude: 2.82009
Picture © Werner Van Caneghem
Location Information
Grévillers is a village in the Department of the Pas de Calais, 3 kilometres west of Bapaume. From Bapaume take the RD929 in the direction of Amiens, turn immediately right onto the RD7, where a signpost indicates the cemetery. After 500 metres turn left at junction onto RD29, where a signpost indicates the cemetery which is on the right after a further 50 metres.
Visiting Information Wheelchair access is possible via the main entrance.
Historical Information
The village of Grévillers was occupied by Commonwealth troops on 14 March 1917 and in April and May, the 3rd, 29th and 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Stations were posted nearby. They began the cemetery and continued to use it until March 1918, when Grévillers was lost to the German during their great advance. On the following 24 August, the New Zealand Division recaptured Grévillers and in September, the 34th, 49th and 56th Casualty Clearing Stations came to the village and used the cemetery again. After the Armistice, 200 graves were brought in from the battlefields to the south of the village, 40 from an adjoining cemetery made during the German occupation, and some from the following:-
AVESNES-LES-BAPAUME GERMAN CEMETERY, "near the British huts", which contained the graves of two soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in April 1918.
BAYONET TRENCH CEMETERY, GUEUDECOURT, which contained the graves of 19 soldiers of the 1st Australian Infantry Battalion who fell on 5 November 1916.
There are now 2,106 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in GREVILLERS BRITISH CEMETERY. 189 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 18 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of two casualties, buried in Avesnes-les-Bapaume German Cemetery, whose graves could not be found. The cemetery also contains the graves of seven Second World War airmen, and 18 French war graves.
Total Burials: 2,132
World War One Commonwealth Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 1,342, Australia 408, New Zealand 151, Canada 13, India 2, South Africa 1. Total 1,917.
World War One Commonwealth Unidentified Casualties: United Kingdom 161, Australia 20, New Zealand 2, Canada 1, India 1, Unknown 4. Total 189.
World War Two Commonwealth Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 6, Canada 1. Total 7.
Other Nationalities: France 18.
Within the cemetery stands the GRÉVILLERS (NEW ZEALAND) MEMORIAL which commemorates 446 officers and men of the New Zealand Division who died in the defensive fighting in the area from March to August 1918, and in the Advance to Victory between 8 August and 11 November 1918, and who have no known grave.
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.
Total Commemorated on Memorial: New Zealand 446.
The Cemetery and Memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens & George Hartley Goldsmith
Dedications
M/222498 Private Leonard Howard, 363rd M. T. Coy. Army Service Corps. Attd. "V" Corps. Heavy Artillery, 27th September 1918.
Remembered by Grandson, Peter Howard
Cemetery images in gallery below © Werner Van Caneghem
Image above © Werner Van Caneghem
31st October 1916; Aerial photograph of Thilloy, Grévillers, Le Barque.
A scene of destruction on the 'Village Green' of Grévillers, viewed through an arched window of the ruined church, on 22 May 1917.
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A view through an archway of the shell wrecked church of Grévillers in May 1917.
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German prisoner from Lorraine, guarded by a Scottish soldier, in a temporary POW camp at Grévillers, 23 March 1918. © IWM (Q 8612)
Image above © Werner Van Caneghem
Following the capture of Grévillers by the New Zealand Division, Men of the Royal Garrison Artillery pose beside one of the 4.2 inch guns of a captured battery at Grévillers, 25 August 1918. Note the camouflage netting on the ground, which was designed to prevent the guns from being spotted from the air.
© IWM (Q 11243)
Images in gallery below © Johan Pauwels
World War Two Burials
Headstone image © Werner Van Caneghem
William was killed when his Spitfire F Mk. IX, (BS104), was shot down and crashed at Grenvillers, 20 kilometres south of Arras.
R/105253 Flight Sergeant
William George Uttley
Pilot in 403 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force
13th May 1943, aged 21.
17. B. 23.
Son of Gibson and Ethel Uttley, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada,.
His headstone bears the inscription "Till Memory Fades And Life Departs You Live For Ever In Our Hearts"
William George Uttley
Pilot in 403 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force
13th May 1943, aged 21.
17. B. 23.
Son of Gibson and Ethel Uttley, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada,.
His headstone bears the inscription "Till Memory Fades And Life Departs You Live For Ever In Our Hearts"
Other World War Two Burials
Headstone images © Werner Van Caneghem
The Avro Lancaster II DS660 KO-P of 115 Squadron, was shot down a by a Luftwaffe night-fighter on a mission to Aachen. The Lancaster is thought to have been the victim of Hptm. Hubert Rauh of 3./NJG4 (Nachtjagdgeschwader, or night fighter wing). The Lancaster crashed at 02.35 near Metz-en-Couture, with the loss of six of the seven crew.
138396 Pilot Officer
Chester Armstrong
Navigator in 115 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
14th July 1943.
18. E. 26.
Chester Armstrong
Navigator in 115 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
14th July 1943.
18. E. 26.
1653104 Sergeant
Mervyn Jones
Flight Engineer in 115 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
14th July 1943, aged 20.
18. E. 25.
Son of John and Harriet E. Jones, of Morfa, Llanelly, Carmarthenshire.
His headstone bears the inscription "To A Good Life Came A Sudden End He died As He Lived Everyone's Friend. Father"
Mervyn Jones
Flight Engineer in 115 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
14th July 1943, aged 20.
18. E. 25.
Son of John and Harriet E. Jones, of Morfa, Llanelly, Carmarthenshire.
His headstone bears the inscription "To A Good Life Came A Sudden End He died As He Lived Everyone's Friend. Father"
1077619 Sergeant
Peter Williams
115 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
14th July 1943, aged 21.
Joint grave 18. E. 21-22.
Son of Arthur and Margaret Williams, of Bolton, Lancashire; husband of Nellie Williams, of Bolton.
His headstone bears the inscription "Resting, Where No Shadows Fall, In Perfect Peace He Awaits Us All"
Peter Williams
115 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
14th July 1943, aged 21.
Joint grave 18. E. 21-22.
Son of Arthur and Margaret Williams, of Bolton, Lancashire; husband of Nellie Williams, of Bolton.
His headstone bears the inscription "Resting, Where No Shadows Fall, In Perfect Peace He Awaits Us All"
1044231 Sergeant Derick Murphy, Air Gunner in 115 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, died 14th July 1943. Joint grave 18. E. 21-22.
1601296 Sergeant John Albert Thomas Newton, 115 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, died 14th July 1943, aged 19.
131977 Flying Officer Frederick Leonard Yates, 115 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, died 14th July 1943, aged 28. 18. E. 24. Son of Thomas Frederick and Ada Yates, of Hampstead, London; husband of Enid Yates, of Hampstead. His headstone bears the inscription "Death Divides But Cannot Take Away Love's Greatest Gift, Remembrance"
1601296 Sergeant John Albert Thomas Newton, 115 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, died 14th July 1943, aged 19.
131977 Flying Officer Frederick Leonard Yates, 115 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, died 14th July 1943, aged 28. 18. E. 24. Son of Thomas Frederick and Ada Yates, of Hampstead, London; husband of Enid Yates, of Hampstead. His headstone bears the inscription "Death Divides But Cannot Take Away Love's Greatest Gift, Remembrance"
Image above © Johan Pauwels
