St Mary's ADS
Location
St Mary's cemetery is located in the vicinity of Haisnes which lies between the towns of Lens and La Bassée in the Pas-de-Calais. Although the Cemetery lies in open farmland, there are neighbouring towns of Vermelles, Loos-en-Gohelle and Hulluch. The Cemetery can be reached from the D947, Lens to La Bassée road, and a CWGC signpost is visible on this road. The Cemetery is to be found on the D39, Hulluch to Vermelles road.
Historical Information
The village was reached, or nearly reached, by the 9th (Scottish) and 7th Divisions on the 25th September 1915, the first day of the Battle of Loos; and parts of the commune were the scene of desperate fighting in the Actions of the Hohenzollern Redoubt (13th-15th October 1915).
No further advance was made in this sector until October 1918, when the enemy withdrew his line.
St Mary's Advanced Dressing Station was established, during the Battle of Loos, and the cemetery named from it is at the same place.
Loos 1915
The cemetery was made after the Armistice, by the concentration of graves from the battlefield of Loos; the great majority of the graves are those of men who fell in September and October, 1915.
There are now nearly 2 000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this cemetery. Of these, over two-thirds are unidentified.
Soldiers of the Great War; Known Unto God: The words of Rudyard Kipling
Special Memorials are erected to 23 soldiers from the United Kingdom, known or believed to be buried among them. Six other special memorials record the names of soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in Loos Communal Cemetery, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.
The cemetery covers an area of 6 097 square metres and is enclosed by a low rubble wall.
The only defined burial ground from which graves were brought to this cemetery was:- Loos Communal Cemetery, on the South-West side of the town, in which nine soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in February 1916, and which was subsequently ruined by artillery fire.
There was at one time a French cemetery of 800 graves on the opposite side of the road; but in 1922 these graves were removed to Notre Dame-de-Lorette French National Cemetery.
Lieutenant John Kipling
2nd Bn Irish Guards
Died on 27 September 1915, aged 18
Only son of Rudyard and Carrie Kipling, of Batemans, Burwash, Sussex
Grave: VII D 2
There has been a lot of discussion as to whether or not this grave is indeed John Kipling.
Rudyard Kipling, England's great writer, spent years searching for his son's body which had never been recovered after the advance of the Guards Division during the Battle of Loos.
Kipling had pulled numerous strings to get his 18 year old son into the Irish Guards after he had failed his medical for poor eyesight.
Kipling and his wife were distraught after the loss of their only son but their efforts to trace his body's whereabouts came to nothing.
In June 1992 the CWGC finally decided that the Irish Guard's Lieutenant buried had to be Kipling, because they could account for all the others who had fallen during the battle.
The argument against this, is that Kipling had not been officially Gazetted as a full Lieutenant despite having been promoted. Thus a Lieutenant of the Irish Guards could not be someone who may well have only been wearing a 2nd Lieutenant's markings.
The theory continues that the body here isn't an Irish Guards Officer at all. The debate continues.
Flight Sub-Lieutenant Harold Day DSC
Royal Naval Air Service
Died on 5th February 1918 aged 20
Son of William and Elizabeth Day, of Wernddu, Abergavenny, Mon.
Grave: XIV E 15
Private William Hogg 34294
13th Bn Royal Scots
Died on 6th October 1918 aged 42
Son of Richard and Margaret Hogg, of Galashiels
Husband of Isabella Hogg, of Avontoun Lodge, Linlithgow
Private A Watson 49381
13th Bn Royal Scots
Died on 6th October 1918 aged 18
Son of George and Christina Watson, of 8 Rowchester St, Glasgow
Private J Sloss 49999
13th Bn Royal Scots
Died on 6th October 1918 aged 19
Son of John and Amelia Sloss, of 607, Alexandra Parade Dennistoun, Glasgow
Grave: XIV F 2
In 2005 there was a short service of commemoration held in the cemetery for those who fell during the battle of Loos in 1915
90th Anniversary Commemorations
There are two other cemeteries within walking distance:
Bois Carré
Ninth Avenue