Guards' Cemetery, Windy Corner
Location
Cuinchy is a village about 7 kms east of the town of Béthune and north of the N41 which runs between Béthune and La Bassée. About 1 km north-west of the village are cross roads known as Windy Corner, and Guards Cemetery is a little west of these cross roads.
| GPS | N | E | OSM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decimal | 50.5289 | 2.7422 | Map |
Historical Information
A little west of Windy Corner was a house used as Battalion Headquarters and Dressing Station. The cemetery grew up beside this house. The original cemetery is now Plots I and II and Rows A to S of Plot III. It was begun by the 2nd Division in January 1915, and used extensively by the 4th (Guards) Brigade in and after February.
It was closed at the end of May 1916, when it contained 681 graves. After the Armistice it was increased by the concentration of 2,720 graves from the neighbouring battlefields and small cemeteries, and in particular from the battlefields of Neuve-Chapelle, the Aubers Ridge and Festubert.
There are now nearly 3,500, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over 2,000 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 36 soldiers from the United Kingdom known or believed to be buried among them.
Other special memorials are erected to six soldiers buried in Indian Village North Cemetery, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire, and to five Indian soldiers originally buried in the Guards Cemetery but afterwards cremated. The cemetery covers an area of 10,151 square metres and is enclosed on the road side by a rubble wall and on the other sides by a low curb.
The smaller graveyards from which graves were concentrated into this cemetery included the following:
Baluchi Road Cemetery, Neuve-Chapelle, on the road from Pont-Logy to the Moated Grange. It contained the graves of fifteen soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in the winter of 1914-15.
Edward Road Cemetery No 3, Richebourg-l’Avoué, on the South side of the Rue des Berceaux, near another Windy Corner (Plot I only, containing the graves of five men of the 1st East Surreys who fell in October 1914).
Indian Village North Cemetery, Festubert, near the intersection of “Prince’s Road” and the front line of early 1915. It contained the graves of fifteen soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in May and July 1915.
Lorgies Communal Cemetery, containing two British graves of October 1918.
Pont-Fixe South Cemetery, Cuinchy, on the West side of Harley Street (the road going South from Windy Corner), a little South of the Canal. This was a row of graves stretching Westward behind houses, and containing the bodies of 42 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in 1915.
The burial of an unknown soldier
1st September 2011
Click on the thumbnail for a larger version
Major John Mackenzie VC
1st Bn Bedfordshire Regiment
Died on 17th May 1915 aged 44
Native of Contin, Ross-shire
Grave: VIII J 10
London Gazette
15th January 1901
On the 6th June 1900, at Dompoassi, in Ashanti, Sergeant Mackenzie, after working two Maxim guns under a hot fire, and being wounded while doing so, volunteered to clear the stockades of the enemy which he did in the most gallant manner, leading the charge himself and driving the enemy headlong into the bush.
Brigadier General The Hon John
Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis DSO
1st Bn Irish Guards
Commanding 20th Infantry Brigade
Died on 24 October 1915 aged 37
Son of the Dowager Lady Clinton
of Woodleigh, Sunninghill, Berks,
and the late Lord Clinton
Grave: III J 4
2nd Lt The Hon Gerald Sergison Bailey
2nd Bn Grenadier Guards
Died on 10th August 1915 aged 22
Son of Lt Colonel Lord Glanusk, CB CBE DSO
(commanding 3rd Bn South Wales Borderers)
and Lady Glanusk of Glanusk Park,
Crickhowell, Breconshire
Grave: II B 13
Lieutenant Arthur Trevarthan
2nd Bn South Staffordshire Regiment
Died on 28th January 1916 aged 21
Son of Arthur and Trevarthen,
of 28, Hatfield Rd, Handsworth, Bimmingham
Grave: II K 3
Private Rupert Bell 1380
23rd Bn Royal Fusiliers
Died on 8th February 1916 aged 25
Son of Isaac and Maria Bell, of 85, Quay, Waterford
Not Dead, Not Dead
You live in our affections
Our first born
Grave: II K 7
Private Joseph Carriere 26425
14th Bn Canadian Infantry
Royal Montréal Regiment
Died on 20th May 1915 aged 29
Grave: III W 22
Private Herbert Grainger 77448
15th Bn Canadian Infantry
48th Highlanders of Canada
Died on 19th May 1915 aged 23
Son of Joseph and Ida Grainger, of Cragie, Saskatchewan
Grave: VI C 47