Messines Ridge British Cemetery, Belgium (CWGC)

MESSINES RIDGE BRITISH CEMETERY

West-Vlaanderen

Belgium

GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.76488 Longitude: 2.89076

Entrance to Messines British Cemetery and Messines New Zealand Memorial

Location Information

Messines Ridge British Cemetery is located 9.5 Kms south of Ieper town centre on the Nieuwkerkestraat, a road leading from the Rijselseweg, N365, which connects Ieper to Wijtschate, Mesen and on to Armentieres.

From Ieper town centre the Rijselsestraat runs from the market square, through the Lille Gate (Rijselpoort) and directly over the crossroads with the Ieper ring road. The road name then changes to the Rijselseweg.

Nieuwkerkestraat is a right hand turning from the N365 in the town of Mesen. The cemetery lies 250 metres after this right hand turning, on the left hand side of the road.

Visiting Information

Wheelchair access to the cemetery is possible, but may be by an alternative entrance.

Historical Information

Messines (now Mesen) was considered a strong strategic position, not only from its height above the plain below, but from the extensive system of cellars under the convent known as the 'Institution Royale.' The village was taken from the 1st Cavalry Division by the German 26th Division on 31 October-1 November 1914. An attack by French troops on 6 -7 November was unsuccessful and it was not until the Battle of Messines on 7 June 1917 that it was retaken by the New Zealand Division. On 10-11 April 1918, the village fell into German hands once more after a stubborn defence by the South African Brigade, but was retaken for the last time on 28-29 September 1918.

MESSINES RIDGE BRITISH CEMETERY, which stands on ground that belonged to the 'Institution Royale' (the Cross of Sacrifice is on the site of the Institution's windmill), was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefield around Messines and from the following small burial grounds:-

BELL FARM CEMETERY, WYTSCHAETE, near the South side of the Messines-Kemmel road, where 32 soldiers of the 25th Division were buried in June, 1917.
BLAUWEPOORTBEEK CEMETERY, WYTSCHAETE, 1.6 kms North-East of Messines, where 16 Australian and seven United Kingdom soldiers were buried in August-October, 1917.
BOUSBECQUES EAST GERMAN CEMETERY, on the South side of the village, where four soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried by a German Field Hospital in November, 1914.
BRISTOL CASTLE MILITARY CEMETERY, MESSINES, on the Wulverghem road near Wulverghem, where 32 United Kingdom soldiers of the 36th (Ulster) and 14th (Light) Divisions were buried in September and October, 1918.
LUMM FARM CEMETERY, WYTSCHAETE, a little East of the Messines road, where 13 United Kingdom and two Australian soldiers were buried in June-September, 1917.
MIDDLE FARM CEMETERY, WYTSCHAETE, near the Messines road 500 metres North of Messines, where 16 Australian, 14 United Kingdom and four New Zealand soldiers were buried in July-December, 1917.
ONRAET FARM CEMETERY, WYTSCHAETE, between Wytschaete and St. Eloi, in which 29 soldiers of the 36th Division were buried in June-August, 1917.
QUEENSLAND CEMETERY, WARNETON, on the lower road from Messines to Warneton, where 30 Australian soldiers (of whom 23 belonged to the 41st Battalion) and three from the United Kingdom were buried in June and July, 1917.
RIVER DOUVE CEMETERY, MESSINES (also called Snitchel Farm) on the river bank South of Messines, containing the graves of 24 Australian and four United Kingdom soldiers who fell in June-November, 1917.

The dates of death of those buried here range from October 1914 to October 1918, but the majority died in the fighting of 1917.

There are now 1,536 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. 954 of the burials are unidentified, but special memorials commemorate a number of casualties known or believed to be buried among them, or who were buried in other cemeteries where their graves were destroyed by shell fire.

Total Burials: 1,535.

Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 296, Australia 204, New Zealand 67, South Africa 10, Canada 1. Total 578.

Unidentified Casualties: 957.

Within the cemetery stands the MESSINES RIDGE (NEW ZEALAND) MEMORIAL which commemorates 828 soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force who died in or near Messines in 1917 and 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.

Commemorated on Memorial: New Zealand 828.

Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Charles Holden and Captain Wilfred Clement Von Berg, M. C.

Undated view of the entrance to Messines Ridge British Cemetery and the New Zealand Memorial. Likely to be late 1920's to early 1930's.

Undated, general view of the cemetery. Probably late 1920's early 1930's.

Messines area; British troops outside a German observation post destroyed by British guns, 11th June 1917. © IWM (Q 3540)

Notes on card read: A bearer squad at Messines on the Plum Duff Road, Messines. (Auckland Museum)

Above 4 images taken in September, 1951.

Clearing a road over the gound taken near Messines, 11th June 1917. © IWM (Q 3516)

The New Zealand Memorial, September, 1951.

Images in this gallery © Werner Van Caneghem

25819 Rifleman
Alexander Stirling Cross
3rd Bn. New Zealand Rifle Brigade
7th June 1917, aged 37.
Plot II. E. 32.

Husband of the late Mrs. E. Cross, of St. Albans, Christchurch, New ZealandBorn in Glasgow, Scotland, 23rd October 1879.

Picture courtesy of great niece, Isobel McCully

After the tremor we saw the flames. I think Kruisstraat was the first, Spanbroekmolen, almost simultaneously with it. A sheet of flame that got tongued in the end. It went up higher than St Paul's - I estimated about 800 feet. It was a white incandescent light, we knew that the temperature was about 3,000 degrees centigrade. The German's there went up as gas. The biggest bit of German I found afterwards was one foot in a boot. (Lieut. Bryan Frayling)

3352 Private
Spencer De Vere
4th Australian Pioneers
8th August 1917, aged 22.
Plot I. C. 22.

Son of Horace Arthur and Esther Lucia de Vere, of "Veremon", 69, Gladstone Rd., South Brisbane, Queensland. Native of Barcaldine, Queensland.

Born in Barcaldine Queensland 1895.

Enlisted Roma Queensland, Australia on 2nd October 1916

Occupation - Clerk … was told he was Secretary to Colonel Onslow prior to enlisting for Active duty

Married to Venice Sarah Catherine Adcock in 1915 and had a son Adrian Richard, born on 29th Feb 1916. He was 18 months old when his father died.

Pictures and information courtesy of Cynthia Egan (Spencer was Cynthia's Grandmother's first husband)

.....We all got out of the tank and walked over to this huge crater. You'd never seen anything like the size of it; you'd never think that explosives would do it. But I saw about 150 Germans laid there, in different positions, throwing a bomb, a gun on their shoulder, all laid there dead. The mine had killed them. The crew stood there for about five minutes and looked. It made us think. That mine had won the battle before it started. We looked at each other as we came away and the sight of it remained with you always. To see them all laid there with their eyes open. (Pte. Frederick Collins)

British soldiers stand looking into the huge mine crater at Messines Ridge, blown up on the morning of the battle. Photographed on 11 June 1917. © IWM (Q 2325)

4631 Private
Henry Charles Ellis Rundle
32nd Bn. Australian Infantry, A. I. F.
19th February 1918, aged 26.
Plot I. B. 60.

Son of Henry and Agnes Sarah Rundle, of Wild Horse Plains, South Australia.

Picture courtesy of Sharon Rundle, great-niece of this soldier

There was a fearsome explosion and the ground was rocking to such a degree that one more or less spread-eagled on the ground rather than fall down. An enormous noise and a blaze of yellow light in every direction. The whole thing was a spectacular show. We then began to dash forward. We reached the lip of this enormous crater and lying around were many German bodies. Later we found a German sergeant major and he told us he'd got a company of 220 men in the area and not one of them had survived this enormous explosion. Those actually near to it still had been blown down and in some cases killed by the force of the explosion. (Second Lieut. Arthur Hemsley)

Original grave at Messines Ridge British Cemetery of R/25315 Rifleman, Arthur Egbert Gerrard, 13th Bn. King's Royal Rifle Corps. 1st July 1917, aged 23. Son of Philip Yeatman Gerrard, and Kate Gerrard, of 109, Woodland Avenue, Wanstead, London; husband of Agnes Gerrard. He is now buried in Plot II. E. 50., and his headstone bears the inscription "Beloved by All" © Jeremy Gordon-Smith

Troops of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry who captured this trench near Messines, 11th June 1917. They are wearing German helmets or caps. Note a board with the sign "I. Stellung. IA Linie. II.Ab". © IWM (Q 2820)

Troops of the 12th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, who attacked on the first morning of the Battle of Messines, (7th June), pictured on the 11th June 1917. © IWM (Q 2818)