SUNKEN ROAD CEMETERY
Contalmaison
Somme
France
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.03215, Longitude: 2.73155
Location Information
Contalmaison is a village and commune in the Department of the Somme, 6 kilometres east-north-east of Albert.
The sunken road from which this cemetery is named is part of the Contalmaison-Pozieres road. The cemetery lies in the fields on Accommodation road 400 metres east of the main Contalmaison to Pozieres road.
Visiting Information
Access to the cemetery is via a rough track which can be inaccessible under bad weather conditions.
Wheelchair access with some difficulty.
Historical Information
The Sunken Road Cemetery was made in July-October 1916, during the middle fighting in the Somme offensive. There are now over 200, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, a small number are unidentified and three Australian graves, which cannot be located, are represented by special memorials. The graves of two German soldiers, buried by the enemy at the end of March 1918, have been removed. The cemetery covers an area of 1,106 square metres, without the access road and is enclosed by a low red brick wall.
Total Burials: 214.
Identified Casualties: Canada 147, Australia 58, United Kingdom 5. Total 210.
Unidentified Casualties: Australia 3, Canada 1. Total 4.
The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker and William Harrison Cowlishaw
March 1918 - An Australian Motor Ambulance A24100 leaving a Dressing Station at Contalmaison Chateau in France. Note the other ambulance in the background.
images in gallery below © Johan Pauwels
Graves and memorial crosses in Sunken Road Cemetery in France. The two named crosses in the foregound are those of 4253 Private (Pte) Ernest Bingham, 48th Battalion and one grave away 3274 Pte Clarence Victor Hill, 48th Battalion. In both cases these are memorial crosses and do not mark burial places [technically memorial crosses should only be for soldiers who were known to be buried in the cemetery but the exact spot was lost; this is not the case for Bingham and Hill].
Bingham’s remains were found in 1927 with other 48th Battalion dead from X.5 which is around OG2 near the windmill area, quite a distance from Sunken Rd Cemetery. Bingham and the other 48th Battalion dead found with him were then moved to Serre Rd Cemetery No 2 at Beaumont Hamel. Hill’s remains were never found but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) kept a special memorial grave for him in Sunken Rd Cemetery which is unusual as they were normally quite strict on Special Memorial headstones in cemeteries.
A number of unit crosses were erected in this cemetery, including the large cross in the centre of the image, inscribed "In memory of those of the 6th Battalion A.I.F. who fell during the Somme battles 1916-17".
Bingham’s remains were found in 1927 with other 48th Battalion dead from X.5 which is around OG2 near the windmill area, quite a distance from Sunken Rd Cemetery. Bingham and the other 48th Battalion dead found with him were then moved to Serre Rd Cemetery No 2 at Beaumont Hamel. Hill’s remains were never found but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) kept a special memorial grave for him in Sunken Rd Cemetery which is unusual as they were normally quite strict on Special Memorial headstones in cemeteries.
A number of unit crosses were erected in this cemetery, including the large cross in the centre of the image, inscribed "In memory of those of the 6th Battalion A.I.F. who fell during the Somme battles 1916-17".
