Vaulx Hill Cemetery, Vaulx-Vraucourt, Pas de Calais, France

VAULX HILL CEMETERY

Vaulx-Vraucourt

Pas De Calais

France

GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.15119, Longitude: 2.9186

Location Information

Vaulx-Vraucourt is a village in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais, 6 kilometres north-east of Bapaume.

Vaulx Hill Cemetery is signposted from the village. Take the RD36 direction Lagnicourt up the hill, and the Cemetery can be seen at the road side 1 kilometre from Vaulx-Vraucourt.

Visiting Information

Wheelchair access is possible with some difficulty.

Historical Information

Vaulx-Vraucourt village was taken in the spring of 1917, lost (after severe fighting) in March 1918, and retaken in the following September.

Vaulx Hill Cemetery started with just 17 graves of September 1918 (in Plot I, Rows A and B). The rest of the cemetery was formed after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields in the immediate neighbourhood and the following smaller cemeteries:-

CHAFOURS WOOD CEMETERY, Morchies, which contained 17 Australian and five United Kingdom graves of 1917.
LAGNICOURT AUSTRALIAN CEMETERY, which contained seven Australian graves of 1917 and 27 United Kingdom of September 1918.
NEW ZEALAND CEMETERY No.17, Favreuil, where 22 of the 2nd New Zealand Rifles Brigade were buried in August 1918.
SUNKEN ROAD CEMETERY, Beaumetz-Les-Cambrai, which contained 23 Australian and five United Kingdom graves of May 1917.
VRAUCOURT CHURCHYARD EXTENSION, which was across the road from the Church and contained 185 United Kingdom and seven Australian graves of 1917 and 1918 (a GERMAN EXTENSION was also removed).

The cemetery now contains 856 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 257 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate 29 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and four others buried in other cemeteries whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Noel Ackroyd Rew

Total Burials: 856

Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 437, Australia 103, New Zealand 58, Canada 1. Total 599.

Unidentified Casualties: 257

Lieutenant Cecil Harold Sewell, V. C.
Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) and 3rd (Light) Tank Bn. Tank Corps.
Killed in action 29th August 1918, aged 23.
Plot I. D. 3.

Son of Harry Bolton Sewell and Mary Ann Sewell, of 26 Crooms Hill, Greenwich, London.

His brothers Harry Kemp Sewell and Herbert Victor Sewell also fell.

Harry died on 20th August 1917 and is buried in Charlton Cemetery, Greenwich in London.

Herbert died on 13th November 1916 and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial in France.

His headstone bears the inscription "Also In Memory Of Lieut. H. V. Sewell, Royal Field Artillery, Killed 13.11.16 Age 27 Years"

Citation

An extract from "The London Gazette," No. 30982, dated 29th Oct., 1918, records the following:-'' When in command of a section of Whippet Light Tanks in action this officer displayed most conspicuous bravery and initiative in getting out of his own Tank and crossing open ground under heavy shell and machine-gun fire to rescue the crew of another Whippet of his section which had side slipped into a large shell-hole, overturned and taken fire. The door of the Tank having become jammed against the side of the shell-hole, Lt. Sewell, by his own unaided efforts, dug away the entrance to the door and released the crew. In so doing he undoubtedly saved the lives of the officer and men inside the Tank as they could not have got out without his assistance. After having extricated the crew, seeing one of his own crew lying wounded behind his Tank, he again dashed across the open ground to his assistance. He was hit in doing so, but succeeded in reaching the Tank when a few minutes later he was again hit, fatally, in the act of dressing his wounded driver. During the whole of this period he was within full view and short range of the enemy machine guns and rifle-pits, and throughout, by his prompt and heroic action, showed an utter disregard for his own personal safety."

Second Lieutenant
Herbert Edward Arnold
5th Squadron, Royal Flying Corps
26th December 1916, aged 19.
Plot III. F. 20.

Son of Mr. H. and Mrs. R. M. Arnold, of 6, Bedford Avenue, High Barnet, Herts.

Lieutenant
Guy Kennedy Davenport M. C.
4th Brigade, Australian Field Artillery
10th April 1917, aged 26.
Plot II. B. 6.

Solicitor. Son of Frank A. and Ethel Davenport; husband of Mabel Davenport, of Deanery Cottage, Bowral, New South Wales.

58198 Private
Robert Henry Evans
2nd/4th Bn. York and Lancaster Regiment
2nd September 1918, aged 18.
Plot III. J. 21.

Picture courtesy of Paul Evans

8100 Private
Alfred Edgar Richards, M. M.
13th Field Amb. Australian Army Medical Corps
2th March 1917, aged 36.
Plot II. F. 22.

Son of Edwin and Mary Richards. Born at Sydney, New South Wales.

Served with the 2nd Australian General Hospital (2 AGH), of Ashfield Sydney (originally of Launceston, Tas). A clothier prior to his enlistment in July 1915, he embarked for service overseas on HMAT Lincoln on 13 October 1915. By 1916 he was serving with the 13th Field Ambulance and subsequently attached to the 52nd Battalion. In September 1916 he was recommended for a Military Medal (MM) for attending the wounded over two days under very heavy fire and whilst in the open at Mouquet Farm. On 27 March 1917 he was killed, aged 36, by shell fire near Vaulx when the Battalion was moving into the line near Bullecourt.