OWL TRENCH CEMETERY
Hébuterne
Pas De Calais
France
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.12863, Longitude: 2.66938
Image © Johan Pauwels
Location Information
Hebuterne is a village in the department of the Pas de Calais situated 15 kilometres north of Albert (Somme) and 20 kilometres south-west of Arras. The Cemetery is situated 2 kilometres to the east of the village on the road between Foncquevillers and Puisieux.
Visiting Information
Wheelchair access with some difficulty.
Historical Information
The village of Hebuterne was in Allied hands from 1915 until the German advance of March 1918 when part of it had to be given up. The eastern part of the commune remained in German hands until February 1917, and was theirs again in the summer of 1918.
"Owl Trench" was a German cross-trench before Rossignol Wood, raided by the 4th New Zealand Rifle Brigade on 15 July 1918, and cleared by the 1st Auckland Regiment five days later. The cemetery, however, contains the graves of men who died on 27 February 1917, in an attack on German rearguards by the 31st Division.
The cemetery contains 53 First World War burials. Row A is a mass grave for 46 soldiers, 43 of whom belonged to the 16th West Yorkshires. Ten of the burials in the cemetery are unidentified.
Total Burials: 53.
World War One Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 43.
World War Two Unidentified Casualties: United Kingdom 10.
The cemetery was designed by Noel Ackroyd Rew
Cemetery images in gallery below © Johan Pauwels
Captain
Geoffrey Ambler Armitage
16th Bn. West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
27th February 1917, aged 30.
Row A.
Son of the late Mr. and Mrs. George Armitage, of Bradford; husband of Grace L. Armitage, of 14, Chatsworth Avenue, Wembley Hill, Middx.
Geoffrey Ambler Armitage
16th Bn. West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
27th February 1917, aged 30.
Row A.
Son of the late Mr. and Mrs. George Armitage, of Bradford; husband of Grace L. Armitage, of 14, Chatsworth Avenue, Wembley Hill, Middx.
37480 Private
Albert Edward Green
16th Bn. West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
27th February 1917.
Row A.
His headstone bears the inscription "Thy Will Be Done"
Picture courtesy of Olwen Sigsworth, Canada
Albert Edward Green
16th Bn. West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
27th February 1917.
Row A.
His headstone bears the inscription "Thy Will Be Done"
Picture courtesy of Olwen Sigsworth, Canada
Lieutenant
Walter Forster Knight
14th Bn. attd. 16th Bn. West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
27th February 1917, aged 28.
Row A.
Husband of Emily Bertha Knight, of 159, Rushmore Rd., Clapton, London.
His headstone bears the inscription; "Greater Love Hath No Man Than This."
Walter Forster Knight
14th Bn. attd. 16th Bn. West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
27th February 1917, aged 28.
Row A.
Husband of Emily Bertha Knight, of 159, Rushmore Rd., Clapton, London.
His headstone bears the inscription; "Greater Love Hath No Man Than This."
16/1172 Lance Corporal
Ernest Nettleton
16th Bn. West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
27th February 1917.
Row A.
Ernest Nettleton
16th Bn. West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
27th February 1917.
Row A.
Hebuterne, 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.
Hebuterne, 22nd August 1918: 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.
Shell hole in the wall of a house at Hebuterne, 1916. © IWM (Q 1635)
