LILLE SOUTHERN CEMETERY
Nord
France
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.61255, Longitude: 3.04718
Image above © Thierry Grier
Location Information
Follow the A25 motorway from Armentieres and exit at Junction 4. Follow the road to the right toward the hospital and turn left at the second set of traffic lights. Follow this road straight on until reaching the junction at the Church. Go straight through the junction until reaching traffic lights. The cemetery entrance is straight ahead at the junction of the Rue du Faubourg des Postes and the Rue de l'Arbrissead.
Visiting Information
Wheelchair access to this cemetery is possible with some difficulty.
Historical Information
Lille was occupied by the Germans from the 27th August, to the 5th September 1914, and again on the 12th October; and it remained in their hands, undamaged by Allied artillery, until the 17th October 1918.
Southern Cemetery was used by the Germans during the greater part of the War, and after the Armistice by the 39th Stationary Hospital and the 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station.
During the 1939-45 War, at the end of March 1940, the 50th Division was near Lille; while in May the same year No.10 Casualty Clearing Station used the Cemetery from the 16th to the 25th of the month.
There are now over 600, 1914-18 and nearly 300, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, a small number from the 1914-18 War are unidentified and a special memorial is erected to one soldier from the United Kingdom known to be buried among them. From the 1939-45 War nearly 40 are unidentified.
The French number of Plot I is V.2; that of Plot II, V.4; and that of Plot III (where British prisoners of War are buried) J.1. The Second War graves are in french Plot 82.
Total Burials: 618.
World War One Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 313, New Zealand 10, Australia 7. Total 330.
World War One Unidentified Casualties: United Kingdom 8.
World War Two Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 238, Poland 6, Australia 1, Canada 1. Total 246.
World War One Burials
Plot 1
Images in gallery below © Thierry Grier
Images in gallery below © Werner Van Caneghem
World War Two Burials
Plot 2
Images in gallery below © Thierry Grier
Images in gallery below © Werner Van Caneghem
World War One Burials
Plot 3
Images in gallery below © Thierry Grier
Images in gallery below © Werner Van Caneghem
World War Two Burials
Plot 5
Images in gallery below © Thierry Grier
Images in gallery below © Werner Van Caneghem
World War One and Two Burials
Plots 6 & 7
Images in gallery below © Thierry Grier
Resistance Movement Memorial
(Memorial pictures © Johan Pauwels)
167302 Captain
Michael Alfred Raymond Trotobas, Mentioned in Despatches
Manchester Regiment, attd. (French Resistance Movement) Special Operations Executive
27th November 1943, aged 29.
Section 92A.
Son of Henri Noel and Agnes Trotobas, of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire. Formerly served with the Middlesex Regiment. (Buried below the Resistance Movement Memorial).
His headstone bears the inscription; "In Loving Memory Of My Son "Capitaine Michel" Killed In Action With The French Resistance."
Michael Alfred Raymond Trotobas, Mentioned in Despatches
Manchester Regiment, attd. (French Resistance Movement) Special Operations Executive
27th November 1943, aged 29.
Section 92A.
Son of Henri Noel and Agnes Trotobas, of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire. Formerly served with the Middlesex Regiment. (Buried below the Resistance Movement Memorial).
His headstone bears the inscription; "In Loving Memory Of My Son "Capitaine Michel" Killed In Action With The French Resistance."
Michael Alfred Raymond Trotobas (1914-1943) was born of British and French parents and spent part of his early life in both Northern France and England. In 1939 he became a regular soldier in the Middlesex Regiment. After Dunkirk (1940) he was recruited to the Special Operations Executive's (SOE) French Section and given a commission in the Manchester Regiment.
In 1941, under the code name 'Sylvestre', he was parachuted into the Chateauroux area. Six weeks later he and nine agents were arrested. However, in 1942 Trotobas took part in a mass escape of SOE agents from Mauzac prison. He then went on to establish and lead the Lille- based 'Farmer' circuit.
From 1943 Trotobas, or 'Capitaine Michel', successfully led a sabotage campaign against the Germans, targeting the Lens-Béthune railway, tool factories at Armentières, and naval depots and wharfs at Amiens, Boulogne and Calais. His most important operation was the destruction of the Lilles-Fives S.N.C.F Locomotive works, which was extremely important to the running of the German railway. In June 1943 the factory was destroyed.
Trotobas was killed in November 1943 whilst trying to evade arrest by a Sicherheitsdienst (SD) raiding party who had been given the address of his safe house by a captured agent, code named 'Olivier'. Trotobas was recommended for a posthumous Victoria Cross (VC), but this was rejected as there was no one senior to him present to report on his actions. (Text © National Army Museum
In 1941, under the code name 'Sylvestre', he was parachuted into the Chateauroux area. Six weeks later he and nine agents were arrested. However, in 1942 Trotobas took part in a mass escape of SOE agents from Mauzac prison. He then went on to establish and lead the Lille- based 'Farmer' circuit.
From 1943 Trotobas, or 'Capitaine Michel', successfully led a sabotage campaign against the Germans, targeting the Lens-Béthune railway, tool factories at Armentières, and naval depots and wharfs at Amiens, Boulogne and Calais. His most important operation was the destruction of the Lilles-Fives S.N.C.F Locomotive works, which was extremely important to the running of the German railway. In June 1943 the factory was destroyed.
Trotobas was killed in November 1943 whilst trying to evade arrest by a Sicherheitsdienst (SD) raiding party who had been given the address of his safe house by a captured agent, code named 'Olivier'. Trotobas was recommended for a posthumous Victoria Cross (VC), but this was rejected as there was no one senior to him present to report on his actions. (Text © National Army Museum
French President Raymond Poincare with General William Birdwood inspecting the British Guard of Honour on his arrival at one of the gates of the city of Lille, 21 October 1918. © IWM (Q 9592)
Rue de Paris in Lille, showing destroyed buildings on the right and the Stock Exchange in the distance. Note German notice outside the Hotel de la Paix. This street was one of those damaged by the bombardment of October 1914. © IWM (Q 55208)
