Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilly

Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery.
Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery, viewed from the tower of the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.
Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery, viewed from the tower of the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.

This cemetery is a concentration cemetery, being created after the Armistice of November 1918 by bringing together graves and remains from the nearby battlefields and from several military burial grounds in the area.

A total number of 2,142 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War are buried or commemorated here. Of this number, 609 of the burials are unidentified. It is believed that five soldiers are buried among these unidentified graves and there are special memorials to them. There are also special memorials to 15 men who were buried in other cemeteries before the Armistice and their graves could not be found when those burial sites were examined for removing the graves to this place.

There are graves for two New Zealand airmen of the Second World War in the Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery.

Design of the Cemetery

The Stone of Remembrance at the entrance to Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery.
The Stone of Remembrance at the entrance to Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery.

The cemetery and the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

Stone of Remembrance

The Stone of Remembrance, also known as the War Stone, is at the entrance to the cemetery, flanked by two large portico type structures. The Memorial Registers for the cemetery and Visitors' Book are located in the right hand (southern) of these two buildings.

Cross of Sacrifice

The Cross of Sacrifice, also called the Great Cross, is situated in the centre of the cemetery.

Cemetery Plots

Plan of Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery (CWGC).
Plan of Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery, courtesy of the CWGC.

On the left hand side as one enters the cemetery, the ten Plots numbered I to X and the Plot number XX at the far end of the right hand (south) side of the cemetery, were completed by 1920. These plots contain mostly Australian graves. The majority of these graves are for officers and men who died during the period from March to August 1918.

The plots with an “A” after the Roman numeral, i.e. Plots IIIA, VIA, XIIIA and XVIA, and Rows in other Plots which are lettered “AA”, were completed by 1925. These plots contain many graves which are unidentified. Many of them were brought to this place from a distance beyond the nearby battlefield location.

In the late 1920s there were 444 graves brought to this cemetery and reburied here from Dury Hospital Military Cemetery.

The burial grounds listed here were sites from where graves were exhumed and were brought into this cemetery:

Grave of Second Lieutenant Barlow, Royal Air Force, one of the 2,142 burials in this cemetery.
Grave of Second Lieutenant Barlow, one of the 2,142 burials in this cemetery.

Villers-Bretonneux Memorial

Villers-Bretonneux Memorial with graves in the Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery in the foreground.
Villers-Bretonneux Memorial with graves in the Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery in the foreground.

The cemetery is located in the grounds of the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. The memorial is an Australian National Memorial.

Villers-Bretonneux Memorial

Location of the Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery

Latitude N 49° 53' 11" ; Longitude E 2° 30' 31"

The cemetery is situated on the D23 minor road about halfway between the villages of Villers-Bretonneux and Fouilloy.

Parking

There is parking space at the roadside for cars and coaches. Visitors should be careful when moving about by parked vehicles as this road is fairly quiet but vehicles tend to be travelling fast when they are passing this place.

Related Topics

Cemeteries and Memorials on the Somme Battlefields

Thiepval Anglo-French Cemetery at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.
Thiepval Anglo-French Cemetery

Cemeteries on the Somme Battlefields

Momuments and Memorials on the Somme Battlefields

Acknowledgements

CWGC Plan of the cemetery and information about the cemetery by kind permission of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission