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LocationSouchez is a village 3.5 kilometres north of Arras on the main road to Bethune. The cemetery is about 1.5 kilometres south of the village on the west side of the D937 Arras-Bethune Road. Historical InformationSouchez was sacked more than once in the Middle Ages, and raided by the Germans in December, 1870. It was captured by the French on the 26th September, 1915, and the area was taken over by British troops in the following March. The village was completely destroyed. The "Cabaret Rouge" was a house on the main road about 1 kilometre south of the village, at a place called Le Corroy, near the British cemetery.
On the East side, opposite the cemetery, were dugouts used as Battalion Headquarters in 1916. The communication trenches ended here, including a very long one named from the Cabaret. The cemetery was begun by British troops in March, 1916, and used until August, 1917 (largely by the 47th (London) Division and the Canadian Corps) and - at intervals - until September, 1918. (These original burials are in Plots I to V inclusive). It was greatly enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration of over 7,000 graves, partly from the battlefields of Arras, and partly from 103 other burial grounds in the Nord and the Pas-de-Calais. There are now nearly 8,000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site and 1 from the 1939-45 War. The cemetery covers an area of 24,772 square metres and is enclosed by a low rubble wall. |
Canada's Unknown SoldierOn 25th May 2000 the remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier were entrusted to Canada at a ceremony held at the Vimy Memorial, France.
The remains had been exhumed by France Area staff of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission from: Plot 8, Row E, Grave 7. The remains were laid to rest within the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in a sarcophagus placed at the foot of the National War Memorial, Confederation Square, Ottawa, Canada.
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