MUD CORNER CEMETERY
Hainaut
Belgium
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.74213 Longitude: 2.89856
© Geerhard Joos
Location Information
Mud Corner Cemetery is located 12 Kms south of Ieper town centre, on a road leading from the Rijselseweg N365, which connects Ieper to Wijtschate, Mesen, Ploegsteert 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.
2 Kms after Mesen lies the left hand turning onto rue St Yvon. Immediately after passing Prowse Point Military Cemetery lies a right hand turning onto a small road track (unsuitable for vehicles), 300 metres after this junction lies the cemetery.
Visiting Information
The location or design of this site, makes wheelchair access impossible.
Historical Information
Mud Corner was the name given to a road junction on the northern edge of Ploegsteert Wood, very close to the front.
The cemetery was used from 7 June 1917, when the New Zealand Division captured Messines, to December 1917.
The cemetery contains 85 First World War burials.
The cemetery was designed by G H Goldsmith.
Total Burials: 85.
Identified Casualties: New Zealand 52, Australia 31. Total 83.
Unidentified Casualties: New Zealand 1, United Kingdom 1. Total 2.
Mud Corner Cemetery is located 12 Kms south of Ieper town centre, on a road leading from the Rijselseweg N365, which connects Ieper to Wijtschate, Mesen, Ploegsteert 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.
2 Kms after Mesen lies the left hand turning onto rue St Yvon. Immediately after passing Prowse Point Military Cemetery lies a right hand turning onto a small road track (unsuitable for vehicles), 300 metres after this junction lies the cemetery.
Visiting Information
The location or design of this site, makes wheelchair access impossible.
Historical Information
Mud Corner was the name given to a road junction on the northern edge of Ploegsteert Wood, very close to the front.
The cemetery was used from 7 June 1917, when the New Zealand Division captured Messines, to December 1917.
The cemetery contains 85 First World War burials.
The cemetery was designed by G H Goldsmith.
Total Burials: 85.
Identified Casualties: New Zealand 52, Australia 31. Total 83.
Unidentified Casualties: New Zealand 1, United Kingdom 1. Total 2.
A smiling soldier poses halfway out of his sandbagged bunker named Mud Lane Breastwork. Ploegsteert. © Crown Copyright (NZ)
Outdoor portrait of 2600 Corporal George Smith Holliday, C Company, 35th Battalion, at the memorial erected near Ash Crater to members of the 35th Battalion who fell in the battle of Messines on 7 June 1917. A memorial similar to this one, less the names, was erected by the Battalion Pioneers near Gooseberry Farm, just west of Messines, in June 1917, but was destroyed by enemy shellfire.
Listed on the Memorial and buried in this cemetery are the following Australian Servicemen;
2032 Private Edward John Bellchambers
1090 Private Frederick Charles Cantelo
1111 Private Samuel Jackson Dale
Second Lieutenant Thomas Henry Denton-Clarke
1945A Private Arthur Floate
1270 Private Mark Elms Walters
2032 Private Edward John Bellchambers
1090 Private Frederick Charles Cantelo
1111 Private Samuel Jackson Dale
Second Lieutenant Thomas Henry Denton-Clarke
1945A Private Arthur Floate
1270 Private Mark Elms Walters
Ploegsteert Wood, Belgium. 26 December 1917. Men of the 22nd Battalion, laying down wire entanglements, behind the line at Ploegsteert Wood. Hill 63 is seen in the background. The men were living in hutments at Kortepyp Camp where Christmas Day was spent. The Battalion was in reserve and fatigue parties were sent forward daily by the light railway to Ploegsteert where wiring was carried out and extensive salvaging operations undertaken under the supervision of Major J. S. Dooley MC. The area was very quiet at this time and received only desultory shelling.
Ploegsteert, Belgium, 1917. A snow-covered street lined with ruined buildings badly damaged by enemy bombardment in the town south of Messines.
Images in this gallery © Geerhard Joos
2nd December 1917; A view from Strafer's Nest to Ploegsteert Wood showing duckboards and numerous graves, marked by crosses, along Mud Lane and Bunhill Row. Note two shell damaged buildings in the background.
Images in this gallery © Werner Van Caneghem
Unrevetted trenches in the Ploegsteert Sector, occupied by the 18th Battalion. The section photographed is a portion of Una Trench, 200 yards behind our front line posts. Identified, left to right: Captain W. G. Graham MC; Lieutenant H. Johnson; 32091 Sergeant W. H. Joyce, Assistant Official Photographer, AWRS.
June 1917; Two unidentified soldiers on the Medicine Hut Trail, the one on the right has a Kaiser moustache.
