PUCHEVILLERS BRITISH CEMETERY
Somme
France
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.056, Longitude: 2.39625
Roll of Honour
Listed by Surname
Picture © Geerhard Joos
Location Information
Puchevillers is a village on the D11 about 19 kilometres north-east of Amiens. The British Cemetery is a little west of the village. The first Commonwealth War Graves Commission signpost is situated by the church in the village.
Visiting Information
Coach drivers should note that this cemetery is accessed via a small road, which has no space to turn around at the end.
Historical Information
In June 1916, just before the opening of the Battles of the Somme, the 3rd and 44th Casualty Clearing Stations came to Puchevillers. Plots I to V, and almost the whole of Plot VI were made by those hospitals before the end of March 1917. For the next two months the 2nd/1st South Midland Casualty Clearing Station used the cemetery.
Plot VII contains for the most part the graves of men who died in the German advance in 1918, many of whom were buried by the 49th Clearing Station in March 1918, or by the 48th Labour Group in August.
Puchevillers British Cemetery contains 1,763 First World War burials.
Total Burials: 1,763.
Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 1,135, Australia 416, Canada 211, New Zealand 1. Total 1,763.
The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and William Harrison Cowlishaw
Photograph - Puchevillers Cemetery, Somme, France, by Sergeant John Lord, 1916. © MUSEUMS VICTORIA
Images in this gallery © Geerhard Joos
© Jeremy Gordon-Smith
Images in this gallery © Johan Pauwels
Post war image; The brother of Herbert Walter Crowle, A. I. F., visits his grave at Puchevillers.
C.1916; 1165 Private (Pte) James Allen Palmer, 26th Battalion, and an unidentified soldier, standing behind the grave marker of 4528 Private Harry E Milford, 30th Battalion, at Puchevillers British Military Cemetery, France.
The graves of 1109 Private (Pte) James Whelan, 28th Battalion, of Gawler, SA, killed in action 8 August 1916, and 1861 Pte John Patrick Augustine Bennett, 48th Battalion, of Adelaide, SA, died of wounds 7 August 1916, in Puchevillers British Cemetery. Pte Whelan also had two brothers in the AIF. The cross over the grave of Pte Bennett was erected by F Bennett.
The grave of 270 Sergeant Ernest William Bates, 27th Battalion, of Adelaide, SA, died of wounds 7 August 1916, in Puchevillers British Cemetery. The graves surrounding are marked with a simple wooden cross and a small name plate recording the details of the deceased.
Portrait of the grave of Lieutenant Herbert Walter Crowle, 3rd Reinforcements, 10th Battalion, of North Adelaide, SA. A master builder prior to enlisting on 12 December 1914, Crowle embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Runic on 19 February 1915, as a private with regimental number 1457. He was wounded at Gallipoli on 19 May 1915 and again (mortally) at Mouquet Farm, Pozieres, on 21 August 1916. The large headstone was erected by his wife and brother, October 1919. From Adelaide, Australia. His epitaph reads "He gave his all that they should not pass".
Surgery in progress in an operating theatre suite at No 3 Casualty Clearing Station, July 1916. © IWM (CO 157)
