SANDPITS BRITISH CEMETERY
Fouquereuil
Pas De Calais
France
GPS Coordinates - Latitude: 50.51575, Longitude: 2.58528
© Werner Van Caneghem
Location Information
Fouquereuil is a small village in the Department of the Pas- de-Calais between Bethune and Bruay la Buissiere. Leave the village on the D181 heading towards Gosnay. 1.5 kilometres from the church turn right onto Rue des Potieres. After 200 metres turn left and pass under the Motorway. Sandpits cemetery is 400 metres from the Motorway bridge slightly to the north, on the edge of a woodland.
Visiting Information
Wheelchair access to this site is possible via a signposted long grassed path to the service entrance of the cemetery.
Historical Information
The cemetery was begun by XIII Corps at the outset of the German advance in April 1918, and continued to be used by them until September 1918.
There are now 394 First World War burials in the cemetery.
Casualty Details: UK 393, India 1, Total Burials: 394.
The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and George Hartley Goldsmith
Dedications
186666 Sapper James Fern, 529th (East Riding) Coy. Royal Engineers, 17th June 1918, aged 31. Son of Mary and the late Michael Fern, of 39, Belville St., Greenock.
Remembered by great nieces Norma Wade and Eleanor Mahon
42013 Private
William Brickles
2nd Bn. Suffolk Regiment
13th May 1918, aged 28.
Plot I. H. 3.
Husband of Joanna Brickles, 5, Marsh St., Newport, Middlesbrough.
Picture courtesy of Judith Marshall - his sister Elsie Eleanor Simpson was my grandmother, and I so wish I had been able to trace him for her. She died aged 102 in Middlesbrough.
William Brickles
2nd Bn. Suffolk Regiment
13th May 1918, aged 28.
Plot I. H. 3.
Husband of Joanna Brickles, 5, Marsh St., Newport, Middlesbrough.
Picture courtesy of Judith Marshall - his sister Elsie Eleanor Simpson was my grandmother, and I so wish I had been able to trace him for her. She died aged 102 in Middlesbrough.
Shot at Dawn
15161 Private Patrick Murphy, 47th Bn. Machine Gun Corps, executed for desertion 12th September 1918, plot 4. E. 5. He had served for most of the war, but it seems he was convicted of desertion on 3 separate occasions. Murphy went to his execution, the RC Padre reported, ’wonderfully calm & resigned’. (Putkowski,pp.258-259)
15161 Private Patrick Murphy, 47th Bn. Machine Gun Corps, executed for desertion 12th September 1918, plot 4. E. 5. He had served for most of the war, but it seems he was convicted of desertion on 3 separate occasions. Murphy went to his execution, the RC Padre reported, ’wonderfully calm & resigned’. (Putkowski,pp.258-259)
