| Cemetery
Location |
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AIF Burial Ground is 2 kilometers north of the village of
Flers, in the Department of the Somme. Travel south-west of Bapaume on the D929
in the direction of Albert for 6 kilometers to the village of Le Sars. Turn left
eastwards on the D11 in the direction of Guedecourt for 3.5 kilometers to the
D74/D197 junction. Continue along the D74 in the direction of Guedecourt for 500
meters when a CWGC signpost will be seen indicating the AIF Burial Ground along
a track to the right.
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| Cemetery
Information |
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Flers was captured on the 15th September 1916, in the Battle
of Flers-Courcelette; it was entered by the New Zealand and 41st Divisions,
following the newly-revealed Tanks. It was lost in March 1918, and retaken at
the end of the following August. The cemetery was begun by Australian medical
units, posted in the neighbouring caves, in November 1916 - February 1917;
and these original graves are in Plot I, Rows A and B. It was very greatly
enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration of 3,842 British and French
graves from the battlefields of the Somme, and afterwards from a wider area; the
great majority of these graves date from the autumn of 1916, but one is of 1914,
and others of the spring of 1917 and the spring and summer of 1918.
The following were among the burial grounds from which British
graves were taken to this cemetery:-
FACTORY CORNER, FLERS, a little West of the crossing of the
roads from Eaucourt-L'Abbaye to Gueudecourt and from Flers to Ligny-Thilloy.
This place, which had been a German Headquarters for Artillery and Engineers and
had a German Cemetery, was taken by the 1st Canterbury Infantry Regiment on the
25th September 1916, and again by the 7th East Yorks on the 27th August 1918.
Fifteen soldiers from the United Kingdom and 13 from Australia were buried here
in October 1916 - March 1917, and in August 1918.
NORTH ROAD CEMETERY, FLERS, North-West of the village, at the crossing of the
Eaucourt-L'Abbaye road with "North Road" (to Factory Corner). Here
were buried, in the winter of 1916-17, 13 Australian soldiers and seven from the
United Kingdom.
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| Additional
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| Photograph
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| Photo
Archive |
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| Among those
commemorated here are: |
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| Name: |
DUNCOMBE, CHARLES
WILLIAM REGINALD |
| Rank: |
Lieutenant Colonel |
| Regiment/Service: |
Yorkshire
Hussars Yeomanry |
| Secondary
Regiment: |
King's Royal
Rifle Corps |
| Secondary
Unit Text: |
Commanding 21st
Bn. |
| Age: |
37 |
| Date of
Death: |
15/09/1916 |
| Additional
information: |
2nd Earl of
Feversham. Son of William Reginald Duncombe, Viscount Helmsley,
elder son of 1st Earl of Feversham; husband of Countess of
Feversham (now Lady Marjorie Beckett, of Kirkdale Manor,
Nawton, Yorks). |
| Grave/Memorial
Reference: |
III. L. 29. |
| Grave
Photo: |
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