Hyde Park Corner
Location
Hyde Park Corner (Royal Berks) Cemetery is located 12.5 kilometres south of Ieper town centre on the N365 leading from Ieper to Mesen, Ploegsteert and on to Armentières. From Ieper town centre the Rijselsestraat runs from the market square, through the Lille Gate (Rijselpoort) and directly over the crossroads with the Ieper ring road. The road name then changes to the Rijselseweg (N336).
3.5 kilometres along the N336 lies a fork junction with the N365.
This is at Sint Elooi and you will see a cannon and memorial at the junction.
Take the right hand fork N336 in the direction of Mesen.
Continue through Wijtschate and Mesen. The road will ascend Hill 63 (Note the information panels on the right) and then come down into Ploegsteert Wood. You will soon see the Ploegsteert Memorial on your right with a small cemetery and a café on your left.
This smaller cemetery is Hyde Park Corner and the Berks Cemetery Extension is the larger one next to the memorial.
| GPS | N | E | OSM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decimal | 50.73779 | 2.88216 | Map |
The sounding of the Last Post takes place at the Ploegsteert Memorial
on the first Friday of every month at 1900 hours.
Historical Information
Hyde Park Corner was a road junction to the north of Ploegsteert Wood. Hill 63 was to the north-west and nearby were the Catacombs, deep shelters capable of holding two battalions, which were used from November 1916 onwards.
Hyde Park Corner (Royal Berks) Cemetery was begun in April 1915 by the 1/4th Royal Berkshire Regiment and was used at intervals until November 1917.
The cemetery contains 83 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and four German war graves.
Berks Cemetery Extension is separated from Hyde Park Corner Cemetery by a road.
The extension was begun in June 1916 and used continuously until September 1917. At the Armistice, the extension comprised Plot I only, but Plots II and III were added in 1930 when graves were brought in from Rosenberg Château Military Cemetery and Extension, about 1 kilometre to the north-west, when it was established that these sites could not be acquired in perpetuity.
Within Berks Cemetery Extension stands the Ploegsteert Memorial.
The cemetery, cemetery extension and memorial were designed by H Chalton Bradshaw.
Rifleman Albert French C/7259
18th Bn King’s Royal Rifle Corps
Died on 15th June 1916 aged 16
Grave: B 2
By a strange turn of fate a box of Albert’s letters was discovered, describing his life in the army from the moment he joined in 1915 to the day he died a week before his 17th birthday.
His story is an interesting one: the family were even refused the War Pension because he had been underage.
Rifleman Samuel McBride 5009
2nd Bn Royal Irish Rifles
Died on 7th December 1916
Shot at Dawn
With a previous conviction for absence hanging over him McBride had little chance of clemency when he absented himself a second time. He was shot near Hope Farm on the northern side of the wood.
Grave: A 17