Orchard Dump
Webmatters : Bailleul Road East Cemetery, St Laurent-Blangy
Rough Map of Area

Bailleul Road East Cemetery

Location

St Laurent-Blangy is a village adjoining the north-east side of Arras. Leave St Laurent-Blangy on the D919 towards Bailleul-sire-Berthoult for about 2.5 kilometres. Bailleul Road East Cemetery is about 2 kilometres north-east of the village on the south side (right) of the road.

There is a very large German Military Cemetery just behind this cemetery with over 30,000 burials.

GPSNEOSM
Decimal50.3206962.816942 Map
Bailleul Road East Cemetery

Historical Information

A greater part of the village was included in the front taken over by British troops in March 1916, and the remainder fell into British hands on the first day of the Battles of Arras, the 9th April 1917.

Bailleul Road East Cemetery was begun by the 34th Division in April 1917, and carried on by fighting units until the following November; and Plot I, Row R, was added in August 1918. Plots II, III, IV and V were made after the Armistice by the concentration of isolated graves from a very wide area North, East and South of Arras and from two other burial grounds.

There are now over 1 000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over half are unidentified, and seven special memorials record the names of soldiers from the United Kingdom buried in Northumberland Cemetery, Fampoux, whose graves could not be found on concentration; and a number of graves in Plot V, identified as a whole but not individually, are marked by headstones bearing the additional words, Buried near this spot. (See Isaac Rosenberg below).

Bailleul Road East Cemetery

Every year of the war is represented in the cemetery, but more particularly the last nine months of 1917.

The cemetery covers an area of 4 486 square metres and is enclosed by a rubble wall.

The two burial grounds from which British graves were brought to this cemetery were the following :

  • Northumberland Cemetery, Fampoux, was on the West side of the road from Fampoux to Bailleul-Sire-Berthoult. This road was called Northumberland Lane, and a neighbouring trench was called Northumberland Avenue. The cemetery was used by fighting units from April to July 1917, and one other burial was made in it in September 1918. It contained the graves of 69 soldiers from the United Kingdom, and these (except seven which were not found) were concentrated into Plot V of Bailleul Road East Cemetery.
  • Lagnicourt Soldiers’ Cemetery (the German name) was near the South-East side of the village of Lagnicourt. It contained the grave of one RFC Officer who fell in October 1916.

Galt and Dowman
Private William Galt 30504
16th Bn Royal Scots
Died on 9th April 1917 aged 19
Son of John Galt, of Main St, Lennoxtown, Glasgow
Private Thomas Dowman 28227
10th Bn Lincolnshire Regiment
Died on 9th April 1917 aged 19
Son of Charles Dowman, of Harby, Lincoln
Grave: I C 2
Grave: I C 3

Private Isaac Rosenberg

Private Isaac Rosenberg 22311
1st Bn The King’s Own
Royal Lancaster Regiment
Died on 1st April 1918 aged 27
Son of Barnet and Annie Rosenberg
of 87 Dempsey St, Stepney, London. Born at Bristol.

Grave: IV C 10

Artist and Poet

Some critics of the time considered Rosenberg the best of the war poets after Wilfred Owen. He was killed in close combat at Fampoux during the German Spring offensive of 1918. His body was originally placed in a mass grave but was later identified (In 1926) and he is now commemorated by a Special Memorial within this cemetery.

The Immortals

I killed them, but they would not die.
Yea! all the day and all the night,
For them I could not rest or sleep,
Nor guard from them nor hide in flight.


The Wallis Brothers

The Willis Brothers
Private Benjamin Wallis

Private Benjamin Wallis 6170
22nd Bn Australian Infantry
Died on 3rd March 1917 aged 25
Son of John and Elizabeth Wallis
of 7 Alexandra Villas, Perry Hall Rd, Orpington, Kent, England

Grave: II B 12

Private Harry Wallis G/180 of the 6th Bn Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial to the Missing. He was 21 when he was killed on 14th October 1915.

Private Archibald Wallis 3799 of the 8th Bn Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) is buried at Perth Cemetery near Ieper (Grave: IV A 17). He was 20 when he was killed on 28th February 1916.

2nd Lt Walter Brodie

2nd Lieutenant Walter Brodie
15th Bn Royal Scots
Died on 9th April 1917 aged 25
Son of Peter and Alice Brodie
of 1, Clifford Rd, Stirling

Grave: I A 2

Private J Medlin

Private J Medlin 3179
3rd regiment South African infantry
Died on 9th April 1917

Grave: I D 2