Bapaume Post
Location
The town of Albert is in the Department of the Somme. The Military Cemetery is about 2 kilometres north-east of the town on the right-hand side of the main road, D929, to Bapaume.
Historical Information
Bapaume Post Military Cemetery lies on the West side of Tara Hill, and South-West of Usna Hill, and at times it was called by those names. In June 1916, the British front line crossed the Bapaume road between the site of this cemetery and the village of La Boisselle.
The attack on La Boisselle on the 1st July was not successful, and several days passed before the village was taken. The cemetery was begun almost at once by the Divisions engaged in this sector; and 152 graves in Plot I, Rows B to I, were made between the commencement of the Battle of Albert and the end of January 1917, when the cemetery was closed.
On the 26th March 1918, the cemetery, with the town of Albert, fell into enemy hands; but in the Battle of Albert, 1918 (21st to 23rd August), it was recovered. After the Armistice, graves from the battlefields East and West of the cemetery were brought into it.
They included many of the graves of the 34th (Tyneside) Division, which attacked along the Bapaume road on the 1st July 1916, and some of the 38th (Welsh) Division, which recaptured Usna Hill on the 23rd August 1918.
There are now over 400, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, two-fifths are unidentified and memorials were erected in it by the 14th Canadian Battalion (Royal Montreal Regiment), the 38th Canadian Battalion and the 7th Field Company, Australian Engineers.
Three British soldiers who fell in August, 1918, are believed to be buried among them and are commemorated by special headstones.
The cemetery covers an area of 2 068 square metres and it is enclosed by a red brick wall.
Lt Colonel Charles Sillery
20th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers
Tyneside Scottish
Died on 1st July 1954 aged 54
Husband of E Sillery, of The Grange, Scalby, Scarborough
Grave: I G 2
Lt Colonel W Lyle
23rd Bn Northumberland Fusiliers
Tyneside Scottish
Died on 1st July 1954 aged 40
Son of William Park Lyle; husband of Edith M. Lyle, of Springvale, Hythe, Kent
To him that overcometh
Will I give to eat
Of the tree of life
Grave: I G 1
Major Sir Foster Cunliffe
13th Bn Rifle Brigade
Died on 10th July 1916 aged 41
6th Bart. Son of Sir Robert Cunliffe and Lady Cunliffe, of Acton Park, Denbighshire
Grave: I G 3
2nd Lieutenant J Bennett MM
8th Bn Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Died on 24th July 1916
Son of John and Maria Bennett, of Queen St, Cubbington, Leamington Spa
Grave: I G 6
Lieutenant James Williams
87th Bn Canadian Infantry
Quebec Regiment
Died on 18th November 1916 aged 28
Son of the Right Revd. Lennox Williams, DD, Bishop of Quebec and Caroline his wife
Husband of Evelyn Fisher (formerly Williams), of Park St, Sackville, New Brunswick
BA Oxford University
All honour give to those who
Nobly striving nobly fell
That we might live
Grave: I I 1
Gunner Samuel Jacquest 91546
7th Bde Canadian Field Artillery
Died on 17th October 1916 aged 28
Son of Samuel Frederick and Susan Jacquest, of Kettering
M.A. (Cantab). Headmaster of Greenwood School, British Columbia
Grave: I C 10
Albert Communal Cemetery