Flesquieres Hill British Cemetery

Location

Flesquières is a village at the junction of the D92 and D89 roads, about five kilometres south-west of the main road from Cambrai to Bapaume. The Cemetery lies a little east of the village on the south (right) side of the D92 road to Cantaing.

Historical Information

Flesquières village was attacked by the 51st (Highland) Division, with tanks, on the 20th November 1917, in the Battle of Cambrai, but held for a time by a German officer with a few men ; it was captured on the 21st. It was lost in the later stages of the battle, and retaken on the 27th September 1918, by the 3rd Division.

Flesquieres Hill Cemetery was originally made by the 2nd Division, in 1918, behind a German cemetery (“Flesquieres Soldiers’ Cemetery No.2”) ; but the German graves were removed after the Armistice to Flesquières Communal Cemetery German Extension (which in its turn was removed, with 583 graves, in 1924).

Plots III-VIII were created on the site of the German cemetery and in them were reburied 688 British soldiers from the battlefields of Havrincourt, Flesquières, Marcoing and Masnières and from a few other burial grounds, including :

• Abancourt Communal Cemetery German Extension (Nord), in which 38 British soldiers and four men of the Chinese Labour Corps were buried in 1917-18. (The four Chinese burials were re-buried in Ayette Indian and Chinese Cemetery).
• Havrincourt Communal Cemetery, from which four British soldiers were taken to Achiet-le-Grand Communal Cemetery Extension and three to Flesquières.
• Haynecourt German Cemetery, on the South side of the village, from which eight British graves were removed to Flesquières and two to H.A.C. Cemetery, Ecoust-St. Mein, and 138 German to other cemeteries.
• Masnieres-Crevecoeur Road Cemetery, Crevecoeur Sur-l’Escaut, where 13 New Zealand soldiers and seven of the Devons were buried in October 1918.
• Masnières German Cemetery, South of Masnières, used by the New Zealand Division for eleven burials in October 1918.
• Ribecourt Churchyard, in which four Canadian, one Australian and three British soldiers were buried in 1916-1917.
• 63rd Division Cemetery, between Marcoing and Villers-Plouich, made by the Royal Naval Division at the end of 1917, which contained 41 graves.

There are now over 900, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over one-third are unidentified and special memorials are erected to five officers and men from the United Kingdom and two from New Zealand, known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of three men of the R.N.D., buried at the end of 1917 in the 63rd Division Cemetery, Marcoing, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

The cemetery covers an area of 3,797 square metres.

Immediately next to the cemetery is the Cambrai Tank 1917 exhibition

Both soldiers were members of the crew of Tank D 51 Deborah which was knocked out at Flesquières on the opening day of the Battle of Cambrai. The remains of the tank are now housed in the museum alongside the cemetery.

The other members of the crew who died (Foot, Cheverton and Robinson are buried alongside them).

Captain Duncan Campbell MC
Fort Garry Horse
Died on 20th November 1917 aged 37
Husband of Muriel Campbell
of St John, Quebec

Grave: VI B 16

Captain Campbell led the initial charge by the Fort Garry Horse in their heroic advance against the German lines during the opening day of the Battle of Cambrai in 1917.

Major Geoffrey De Bohun Devereux MC
1st Bn Auckland Regiment NZEF
Died on 1st October 1918 aged 28
Son of the Hon H De B and Mrs Devereux
72, Market Rd, One Tree Hill, Auckland.
New Zealand

Grave: V A 11

Lt Colonel Reginald Selby Walker DSO

Lt Colonel Reginald Selby Walker DSO
VI Corps HQ Royal Engineers
Died on 30th September 1918 aged 46
Son of the late Lt Colonel John Selby Walker (Black Watch) and Mrs J Selby Walker
Husband of Ethel Bridget Walker, of 7, The Grove, Sunderland.
Served in France August 1914-1918

Grave: I D 1

Was responsible for introducing the Army’s first internal combustion engine whilst serving in the Boer War.

Other cemeteries in the area