HAVERSKERQUE BRITISH CEMETERY
Nord
France
Location Information
Haverskerque is a village and commune in the north of France on the main D916 road between St Venant and Morbecque, two large villages south of Hazebrouck.
From the centre of the village of Haverskerque (on the main road) take the D122 road to Merville. After 1.5 kilometres you enter the hamlet of Le Corbie. Continue for a further 500 metres then turn left onto Rue du Colonel Harrison. The cemetery is at the end of this track on the left hand side.
Historical Information
Haverskerque remained in British hands from October 1914, to the end of the War, but from April to August 1918, it was within 5 kilometres of the front line.
The Cemetery was begun in March 1918, by the 33rd and 54th Casualty Clearing Stations, and carried on by fighting units during the Battles of the Lys. After the Armistice a small number of graves were brought in from isolated positions, and two Portuguese graves were removed.
There are now nearly 100, 1914-18 and 50, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Thirteen graves from the 1914-18 War cannot be located, and are represented by special memorials and by five unnamed headstones. From the 1939-45 War, over 20 are unidentified.
The Cemetery covers an area of 403 square metres and is enclosed by a stone rubble wall.
Casualty Details: UK 89, Germany 1, Total Burials: 90
Haverskerque is a village and commune in the north of France on the main D916 road between St Venant and Morbecque, two large villages south of Hazebrouck.
From the centre of the village of Haverskerque (on the main road) take the D122 road to Merville. After 1.5 kilometres you enter the hamlet of Le Corbie. Continue for a further 500 metres then turn left onto Rue du Colonel Harrison. The cemetery is at the end of this track on the left hand side.
Historical Information
Haverskerque remained in British hands from October 1914, to the end of the War, but from April to August 1918, it was within 5 kilometres of the front line.
The Cemetery was begun in March 1918, by the 33rd and 54th Casualty Clearing Stations, and carried on by fighting units during the Battles of the Lys. After the Armistice a small number of graves were brought in from isolated positions, and two Portuguese graves were removed.
There are now nearly 100, 1914-18 and 50, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Thirteen graves from the 1914-18 War cannot be located, and are represented by special memorials and by five unnamed headstones. From the 1939-45 War, over 20 are unidentified.
The Cemetery covers an area of 403 square metres and is enclosed by a stone rubble wall.
Casualty Details: UK 89, Germany 1, Total Burials: 90
Lieutenant
Austin Graham Graham
5th Bn. attd. 4th Bn. Yorkshire Regiment
11th April 1918, aged 48.
Row E. 17.
Son of John and Margaret Ely Graham, of 17, Montalbo Terrace, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham.
His headstone bears the inscription; "What I Gave I Have."
(From a quote by Henry Ward Beecher, the full quote is; "What I spent, I had; What I kept, I lost; What I gave, I have.")
Austin Graham Graham
5th Bn. attd. 4th Bn. Yorkshire Regiment
11th April 1918, aged 48.
Row E. 17.
Son of John and Margaret Ely Graham, of 17, Montalbo Terrace, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham.
His headstone bears the inscription; "What I Gave I Have."
(From a quote by Henry Ward Beecher, the full quote is; "What I spent, I had; What I kept, I lost; What I gave, I have.")
12194 Lieutenant Colonel
Herbert Berkeley Harrison, M. C.
1st Bn. Royal Welch Fusiliers
27th May 1940, aged 43.
Plot EE. 1.
Son of Brigadier-General Robert Arthur Gwynne Harrison, C.M.G., Three times mentioned in Despatches, and Alice Harrison, of King's Worthy, Hampshire; husband of Jeannette Marion Harrison, of Denbigh.
His headstone bears the inscription; "A Very Gentil Parfit Knight."
(From Geoffrey Chaucer's - 'The Knight's Tale.' This is the first tale from the Canterbury Tales.
Picture © Nicholas Philpot
Herbert Berkeley Harrison, M. C.
1st Bn. Royal Welch Fusiliers
27th May 1940, aged 43.
Plot EE. 1.
Son of Brigadier-General Robert Arthur Gwynne Harrison, C.M.G., Three times mentioned in Despatches, and Alice Harrison, of King's Worthy, Hampshire; husband of Jeannette Marion Harrison, of Denbigh.
His headstone bears the inscription; "A Very Gentil Parfit Knight."
(From Geoffrey Chaucer's - 'The Knight's Tale.' This is the first tale from the Canterbury Tales.
Picture © Nicholas Philpot
Pictures in gallery below © Nicholas Philpot
Lt Col Herbert Harrison - killed in action on 27 May 1940 at St Venant, some 2 km South of Haverskerque.
He was a regular soldier who served in WWI, in which he gained the Military Cross. He was appointed Lt Col about 6 months before his death, & was thus Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers during its withdrawal from Belgium over the preceding 2 weeks.
During the evacuation of the British forces from Dunkirk, his battalion was to play its part in defending the shrinking defence line, being under orders to take, hold & then demolish 3 canal bridges, to deny passage to the enemy closing in on the retreating Allied forces.
After 3 days’ desperate fighting —with mounting casualties & undisturbed German reconnaissance from the air— it became clear from captured enemy maps that the Battalion was facing elements of the 3rd German Panzer Division, the tanks of which were to take the last remaining bridge.
The Colonel now being under orders to withdraw the Battalion as best he could, the last remaining effective Company retired from the enemy side of the bridge, Col Harrison & Capt Clough-Taylor being the last to cross before the passage of the German tanks.
The Colonel now realised that the sapper demolition party was no longer there, but — according to Clough-Taylor — stood calmly in the road, directing the formation of a bridgehead, meeting his death from a burst of machine-gun fire, fired at close range.
Another surviving witness, 2nd Lieut F M Edwards told the Colonel’s son that, the Battalion having been largely wiped out, his father felt that he would have to ‘go down with his ship’. So the Colonel fixed his monocle & went forward saying that he would have ‘to see the Germans about it’ — & was killed in the inevitable enemy response.
(Sourced from family & regimental history, by Nicholas Philpot)
He was a regular soldier who served in WWI, in which he gained the Military Cross. He was appointed Lt Col about 6 months before his death, & was thus Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers during its withdrawal from Belgium over the preceding 2 weeks.
During the evacuation of the British forces from Dunkirk, his battalion was to play its part in defending the shrinking defence line, being under orders to take, hold & then demolish 3 canal bridges, to deny passage to the enemy closing in on the retreating Allied forces.
After 3 days’ desperate fighting —with mounting casualties & undisturbed German reconnaissance from the air— it became clear from captured enemy maps that the Battalion was facing elements of the 3rd German Panzer Division, the tanks of which were to take the last remaining bridge.
The Colonel now being under orders to withdraw the Battalion as best he could, the last remaining effective Company retired from the enemy side of the bridge, Col Harrison & Capt Clough-Taylor being the last to cross before the passage of the German tanks.
The Colonel now realised that the sapper demolition party was no longer there, but — according to Clough-Taylor — stood calmly in the road, directing the formation of a bridgehead, meeting his death from a burst of machine-gun fire, fired at close range.
Another surviving witness, 2nd Lieut F M Edwards told the Colonel’s son that, the Battalion having been largely wiped out, his father felt that he would have to ‘go down with his ship’. So the Colonel fixed his monocle & went forward saying that he would have ‘to see the Germans about it’ — & was killed in the inevitable enemy response.
(Sourced from family & regimental history, by Nicholas Philpot)
Captain
John Alexander MacKenzie, M. C.
Royal Army Medical Corps, attd. 6th Bn. Durham Light Infantry
9th April 1918, aged 25.
Row E. 8.
Son of Kenneth Peter and Margaret Mackenzie, of Lochinver, Sutherlandshire.
John Alexander MacKenzie, M. C.
Royal Army Medical Corps, attd. 6th Bn. Durham Light Infantry
9th April 1918, aged 25.
Row E. 8.
Son of Kenneth Peter and Margaret Mackenzie, of Lochinver, Sutherlandshire.
Lieutenant
Duncan Crerar Reeve Millar
13th Bn. Yorkshire Regiment, attd. 21st T.M. Bty. Royal Field Artillery
10th April 1918
Row E. 9.
Duncan Crerar Reeve Millar
13th Bn. Yorkshire Regiment, attd. 21st T.M. Bty. Royal Field Artillery
10th April 1918
Row E. 9.
21426 Serjeant
Taylor Peirson
12th Bn. Yorkshire Regiment
10th April 1918, aged 28.
Row A. 6.
Son of John and the late Mrs. Peirson, of Darlington; husband of Margaret Peirson, of Great Burdon, Darlington.
His headstone bears the inscription; "Thy Will Be Done."
Taylor Peirson
12th Bn. Yorkshire Regiment
10th April 1918, aged 28.
Row A. 6.
Son of John and the late Mrs. Peirson, of Darlington; husband of Margaret Peirson, of Great Burdon, Darlington.
His headstone bears the inscription; "Thy Will Be Done."
World War Two Graves
(Pictures © Werner Van Caneghem)
The Battle of the Lys (Operation Georgette). A Machine Gun Corps post in a barn near Haverskerque, 1 May 1918. © IWM (Q 6571)
365882 Lance Corporal
Henry Swannack
"A" Coy. 1st/4th Bn. Northumberland Fusiliers
11th April 1918, aged 33.
Row D. 6.
Son of Edwin and Sarah Swannack of Retford, Notts; husband of E. Gladys Swannack, of 20, Jesmond Rd., Newcastle-on-Tyne.
His headstone bears the inscription; "To Live In Hearts We Leave Behind Is Not To Die."
(A quote from the Scottish poet, Thomas Campbell (1777-1844))
Henry Swannack
"A" Coy. 1st/4th Bn. Northumberland Fusiliers
11th April 1918, aged 33.
Row D. 6.
Son of Edwin and Sarah Swannack of Retford, Notts; husband of E. Gladys Swannack, of 20, Jesmond Rd., Newcastle-on-Tyne.
His headstone bears the inscription; "To Live In Hearts We Leave Behind Is Not To Die."
(A quote from the Scottish poet, Thomas Campbell (1777-1844))
Lieutenant
Frank Calder Tilbrook
7th Bn. Durham Light Infantry, attd. 231st Field Coy. Royal Engineers
10th April 1918, aged 22.
Row B. 23.
Son of Edmund Montague Tilbrook and Diana Tilbrook, of 2, Pelaw Leazes, Durham (City).
Frank Calder Tilbrook
7th Bn. Durham Light Infantry, attd. 231st Field Coy. Royal Engineers
10th April 1918, aged 22.
Row B. 23.
Son of Edmund Montague Tilbrook and Diana Tilbrook, of 2, Pelaw Leazes, Durham (City).
28118 Private
Anthony Turnbull
2nd Bn. King's Own Scottish Borderers
15th April 1918, aged 20.
Row A. 13.
Son of George and Elizabeth Turnbull, of Pink Bank, Walkerburn, Peebles-shire. Native of Jedburgh, Roxburghshire.
His headstone bears the inscription; "Until The Day Break And The Shadows Flee Away."
(Quote is a slight variation on the Song of Soloman, 4:6)
Anthony Turnbull
2nd Bn. King's Own Scottish Borderers
15th April 1918, aged 20.
Row A. 13.
Son of George and Elizabeth Turnbull, of Pink Bank, Walkerburn, Peebles-shire. Native of Jedburgh, Roxburghshire.
His headstone bears the inscription; "Until The Day Break And The Shadows Flee Away."
(Quote is a slight variation on the Song of Soloman, 4:6)
Officers and troops of a Royal Garrison Artillery Battery in Haverskerque, 18 July 1918. © IWM (Q 6845)
