Location

Polygon Wood Cemetery is located 8 kilometres east of Ieper town centre, on the Lange Dreve a road leading from the Meenseweg (N8), connecting Ieper to Menen. From Ieper town centre the Meenseweg is located via Torhoutstraat and right onto Basculestraat. Basculestraat ends at a main cross roads, directly over which begins the Meenseweg.

4.5 kilometres along the Meenseweg and after passing the Bellewaerde theme park lies the left hand turning onto Oude Kortrijkstraat. 2 kilometres along the Oude Kortrijkstraat the road crosses the A19 motorway. Immediately after this bridge is the left hand turning onto the Lotegatstraat, which borders Polygon Wood. 800 metres along the Lotegatstraat is the right hand turning onto Lange Dreve.

The Cemetery is located 1 kilometres along the Lange Dreve on the left hand side of the road.

Historical Information

Polygon Wood is a large wood 1.6 kilometres south of the village of Zonnebeke which was completely devastated in the First World War. The wood was cleared by Commonwealth troops at the end of October 1914, given up on 3 May 1915, taken again at the end of September 1917 by Australian troops, evacuated in the Battles of the Lys, and finally retaken by the 9th (Scottish) Division on 28 September 1918.

Buttes New British Cemetery

The outline of the wood with the cemeteries at the top

Polygon Wood Cemetery is an irregular front-line cemetery made between August 1917 and April 1918, and used again in September 1918. The cemetery contains 103 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 17 of them unidentified. 60 of those buried here served with the New Zealand forces.

There is also one German grave within the cemetery.

The cemeteries and memorial were designed by Charles Holden.

No longer one of the missing

Private John Thomson 235495
2nd Bn Gordon Highlanders
Who died on 4 October 1917

Husband of Annie Thomson, of 13, Auchterderran Road, Lochgelly, Fife

Grave: D 2A

John had been one of the missing for many years until his body was found by a local gardener in Moleraarelst, Zonebeke in 1998.

John had a knife with his initials on it, plus his badges to give vital clues. Following DNA tests he was formaly identified and reburied here on 21st October 2004.

Two other bodies found at the same time have never been identified and are buried along side of him.