Hazebrouck Cemetery

Location

Hazebrouck is a town lying about 56 kilometres south-east of Calais and is easily reached from Calais or Boulogne. The Communal Cemetery is on the south-western outskirts of the town. From the Grand Place in Hazebrouck follow the D916 Bethune road. Traverse the first set of traffic lights and the Communal Cemetery will be found 200 metres further along on the right hand side of the road, as indicated by a signpost. The War Graves Plot lies immediately inside the entrance to the cemetery.

Historical Information

From October, 1914, to September, 1917, Casualty Clearing Stations were posted at Hazebrouck. From September, 1917, to September, 1918, enemy shelling and bombing rendered the town unsafe for hospitals; but in September and October, 1918, No.9 British Red Cross Hospital was in the town.

The British burials began in October, 1914, and continued until July, 1918. They were made at first among the civilian graves in the old Plots I and II, but after the Armistice these earlier burials were concentrated into the main British enclosure and the Plots were renumbered.

During the 1939-45 War Hazebrouck was on the western flank of the area occupied by the British Expedionary Force until May 1940, and was garrisoned.

There are now over 950, 1914-18 and nearly 100, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, nearly 30 from the 1914-18 War are unidentified. Of those from the 1939-45 War, the majority were killed in late May 1940 during the fighting which covered the retreat of the British Expedionary Force to the Dunkirk-Nieuport perimeter, and 20 are unidentified.

The British plots cover an area of 2,356 square metres. The sum of 20,000 francs was contributed by the town of Hazebrouck to the construction of the British plots.