Location

Vis-en-Artois and Haucourt are villages in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais, on the road from Arras to Cambrai. The Cemetery is at the north side of the main road between the two villages.

Historical Information

Vis-En-Artois and Haucourt were taken by the Canadian Corps on the 27th August 1918, and the cemetery was begun immediately afterwards. It was used by fighting units and Field Ambulances until the middle of October.

It consisted originally of 430 graves (in Plots I and II), of which 297 were Canadian and 55 belonged to the 2nd Duke of Wellington's Regiment. It was increased after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the battlefields of April-June 1917, and August and September 1918, and from the smaller cemeteries in the neighbourhood.

There are now nearly 2,500, war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, nearly two-thirds are unidentified and special memorials are erected to seven soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Canada, known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of four soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves could not be found on concentration.

The cemetery covers an area of 6,577 square metres and is enclosed by a rubble wall.

Of the burial grounds from which graves were brought into this cemetery.

Bois-du-sart British Cemetery, Pelves, at the North-Western angle of the Bois-du-Sart, contained the graves of ten soldiers and airmen from the United Kingdom and nine soldiers from Canada who fell in August and September 1918.

Dury German Cemetery was on the South-East side of Dury village, a little South of the road to Saudemont. It contained the graves of four British and 49 German soldiers.

Ecourt-St Quentin German Cemetery is now a permanent cemetery, on the East side of the road to Lecluse. It contained the graves of 16 soldiers from the United Kingdom.

Etaing Communal Cemetery German Extension contained the graves of six soldiers and airmen from the United Kingdom, who fell in 1917 and 1918, 331 German soldiers (including some who fell in August 1914), and two Russian prisoners.

Lecluse German Cemetery, on the West side of the village, contained the graves of 476 German soldiers, eleven soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in 1917, and one Russian prisoner.

Monchy Quarry Cemetery was in a quarry 800 metres South-East of Monchy-le-Preux. It contained the graves of 22 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in July 1917.

Pelves Canadian Cemetery, nearly 1.6 kilometres due South of the village, contained the graves of 39 soldiers from Canada who fell in August and September 1918.

Pelves Communal Cemetery German Extension contained the graves of two soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in 1917.

Rumaucourt German Cemetery, on the Southern edge of the village, is a permanent cemetery which contained the graves of 21 soldiers from the United Kingdom and six from Australia.

Sailly-en-Ostrevent Communal Cemetery, which was destroyed by shell-fire, contained the graves of three soldiers from the United Kingdom (two of which were recovered).

Vis-en-Artois Communal Cemetery German Extension, which was very badly shelled, contained the graves of 621 German soldiers, 14 from the United Kingdom, eight French and five Russian.

The Memorial to the Missing

The Panel Numbers quoted at the end of each entry relate to the panels dedicated to the Regiment served with. In some instances where a casualty is recorded as attached to another Regiment, his name may alternatively appear within their Regimental Panels.

Refer to the on-site Memorial Register Introduction to determine the alternative panel numbers if you do not find the name within the quoted Panels.

This Memorial bears the names of over 9,000 men who fell in the period from 8 August 1918 to the date of the Armistice in the Advance to Victory in Picardy and Artois, between the Somme and Loos, and who have no known grave.

They belonged to the forces of Great Britain and Ireland and South Africa; the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand forces being commemorated on other memorials to the missing.

The Memorial consists of a screen wall in three parts. The middle part of the screen wall is concave and carries stone panels on which names are carved. It is 26 feet high flanked by pylons 70 feet high.

The Stone of Remembrance stands exactly between the pylons and behind it, in the middle of the screen, is a group in relief representing St George and the Dragon.

The flanking parts of the screen wall are also curved and carry stone panels carved with names. Each of them forms the back of a roofed colonnade; and at the far end of each is a small building.

Private Herbert Ledrew 2633
1st Bn Royal Newfoundland Regiment
Who died on 14 April 1917 aged 20

Son of Jonathan and Jessie Ledrew, of British Harbour, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland

Grave: VIII A 3

Captain Edmond de Vere Pery
32nd Squadron Royal Air Force
Who died on 18 May 1918 aged 24

Served under the name of Glentworth.
Viscount Glentworth.
Eldest son of 4th Earl of Limerick, of Dromore Castle, Pallaskenry, Co Limerick.
Educated at Eton.

Grave: IX A 26