Lillers Cemetery

Location

Lillers is a small town about 15 kilometres west-north-west of Bethune and the Communal Cemetery and Extension lie to the north of the town. From the Mairie in the centre of the town, head north on the D182, after 500 metres turn right onto Rue St Venant. The cemetery is a further 200 metres on the left hand side. Within the Communal Cemetery the Commonwealth war graves are situated on the right hand side half way up the cemetery central path, and the Extension is at the far right end of the Communal Cemetery. Both cemeteries are signposted.

Historical Information

Lillers was used for British billets and Headquarter offices from the autumn of 1914 to April, 1918.

It was during that time a hospital centre; the 6th, 9th, 18th, 32nd, 49th and 58th Casualty Clearing Stations were in the town at one time or another, and they buried their dead on the right of the central path of the Communal Cemetery, working back from Plot I.

In April, 1918, the Germans advanced as far as Robecq; Lillers came under shell-fire, and the units holding this front continued to bury beyond the cemetery boundary, in the Extension.

There are now nearly 900, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, nearly 70 are unidentified.

The British plots in the Communal Cemetery, and the one plot which is the Extension, cover together an area of 2,346 square metres.