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The Western Front Today - London Cemetery & Extension
Updated - Sunday, 8 September, 2002

London Cemetery and Extension on the Somme battlefields was established in September 1916 with a mass burial of 47 men in a shell hole by the British 47th Division.

Today the cemetery comprises approximately 3,300 burials in all following subsequent post-war consolidation: fewer than 200 of these graves bear names, the remainder are unknown. The cemetery also includes a memorial to 27 NCOs and men whose graves are unknown.

The son of the leader of the British Labour Party, Arthur Henderson, is buried in the cemetery. David Henderson, a Captain in the Middlesex Regiment was killed while fighting in High Wood on 15 September 1916 aged 27.

The cemetery further includes a plot of Second World War burials.

References:
Before Endeavours Fade, Rose E.B. Coombs, After the Battle 1994
Major & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide - Somme, Leo Cooper 2000

"Suicide Ditch" was a term used by British soldiers to refer to the front-line trench.

Original Material © Michael Duffy 2000-09, SafeSurf Rated