The Western Front Today - Berkshire Cemetery Extension
Located next to Ploegsteert Wood - and attached to both the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing and Berkshire Cemetery & Extension - the small Hyde Park Corner cemetery was established while the Second Battle of Ypres was being fought in 1915 by 1st/4th Royal Berkshires. It remained in use until November 1917.
To the left of the cemetery is Ploegsteert Wood which was where Lt Bruce Bairnsfather of the Royal Warwickshires drew his first war cartoons and where the legendary 'Old Bill' cartoon character was born. Bairnsfather spent Christmas 1914 in the sector and later remarked upon meeting German soldiers during that year's remarkable Christmas Truce.
Film Footage of Hyde Park Corner Cemetery
References:
Before Endeavours Fade, Rose E.B. Coombs, After the Battle 1994
Major & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide - Somme, Leo Cooper 2000
Around one million Indian troops served in WW1, of which some 100,000 were either killed or wounded.
- Did you know?
