Hebuterne Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais

HÉBUTERNE COMMUNAL CEMETERY

Pas De Calais

France

GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.11958, Longitude: 2.63791

Image © Johan Pauwels

Location Information

Hebuterne is a village 15 kilometres north of Albert (Somme) and 20 kilometres south-west of Arras.

Using the D919 from Arras to Amiens, you will drive through the villages of Bucquoy, Puisieux then Serre Les Puisieux (approximately 20 kilometres south of Arras). On leaving Serre Les Puisieux, 3 kilometres further along the D919, turn right following the signs for Hebuterne. On arrival at Hebuterne, immediately on the right hand side is Hebuterne Communal Cemetery.

Visiting Information

The register is available in the Mairie
Monday from 13.30 to 17.00
Tuesday from 9.00 to 12.00
Thursday from 8.00 to 12.00 and 15.00 to 19.00
Saturday from 9.00 to 12.00

Historical Information

Hebuterne was taken over by Commonwealth forces from the French in the summer of 1915 and it remained vulnerable to shell fire during the 1916 Battle of the Somme. It was again the scene of fighting in March 1918 when the New Zealand Division held up the German advance and during the following summer, the village was partly in German hands. The communal cemetery contains two plots of graves, mainly of the 20th (Light) and 31st Divisions.

The Commonwealth plot was designed by Captain William Clement Von Berg, M. C.

There are now 58 First World War burials in the cemetery, six of them unidentified.

Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 50, Australia 2.

Unidentified Casualties: United Kingdom 6.

Cemetery images in gallery below © Johan Pauwels

14/126 Private
Harry Burgwin
14th Bn. York and Lancaster Regiment
3rd November 1916.
Plot I. C. 5.

R/3245 Rifleman
George Gillespie
11th Bn. King's Royal Rifle Corps
8th August 1916, aged 32.
Plot I. B. 6.

Son of George and Catherine Gillespie, of 44, Earle St., Barrow-in-Furness.

His headstone bears the inscription; "The Wicked Cease From Troubling And The Weary Are At Rest." (Slightly altered from original "There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest." - Job 3:17.)

R/13545 Rifleman
Robert Hulme
11th Bn. King's Royal Rifle Corps
6th August 1916.
Plot I. B. 7.

R/12378 Rifleman
William Thorne
11th Bn. King's Royal Rifle Corps
8th August 1916, aged 22.
Plot I. B. 5.

Son of John and Isabella Thorne, of 269, Waterside, Chesham, Bucks.

618 Corporal
Walter Wesley Tilbrook, M. M.
16th Bn. Australian Infantry, A.I.F.
1st April 1918.
Plot I. A. 2.

S/5454 Rifleman
Harold Walker
"C"Company, 10th Bn. Rifle Brigade
4th August 1916, aged 22.
Plot I. B. 3.

Son of Thomas and Elizabeth Walker, of 96, Summit, Littleborough.

His headstone bears the inscription "Keep Our Loved Ones Now Far Absent Neath Thy Care"

April 1918; Unidentified members of a raiding party of "A" Company, 16th Battalion, A. I. F., after a successful raid. The three men in the foreground are wearing bags containing gas masks around their necks. Attached to the bags are replacement carbon cylinders for the masks. An improvised light is on a pole behind the men.

A view of Nameless Trench, a scene of severe fighting and heavy casualties at the end of March 1918, when the 4th Australian Infantry Brigade was detached from the Australian Corps and hurriedly thrown in with a British Division to check the German advance on this sector.