Whitby High School
Battlefields Tour 18-21st March 2006
Belgium - Ypres and Salient Tour - Sunday 19th March

Private G W SMITH

6th Battalion Cheshire Regiment
Died 3rd November 1917 - Aged 25


Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Near Ypres, West Vlaanderen, Belgium

During the First World War, the village of Lijssenthoek was situated on the main communication line between the Allied military bases in the rear and the Ypres battlefields. Close to the Front, but out of the extreme range of most German field artillery, it became a natural place to establish casualty clearing stations. The cemetery was first used by the French 15th Hopital D'Evacuation and in June 1915, it began to be used by casualty clearing stations of the Commonwealth forces. From April to August 1918, the casualty clearing stations fell back before the German advance and field ambulances (including a French ambulance) took their places. The cemetery contains 9,901 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, a few of which were brought in from the battlefields after the Armistice, and 883 war graves of other nationalities, mostly French and German. It is the second largest Commonwealth cemetery in Belgium. There are 5 Special Memorial headstones to men known to be buried in this cemetery, these are located together alongside Plot 32 near the Stone of Remembrance. The cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.

Lijssenthoek is marked No.73 near Poperinge (centre, left)

These numbers all refer to Commonwealth War Grave Cemeteries/Memorials on the Ypres Salient. It is a staggering number - yet this pattern is repeated down through the Western Front into France.


Casualty Details
Name: SMITH
Initials: G W
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Cheshire Regiment
Unit Text: 6th Bn.
Age: 25
Date of Death: 03/11/1917
Service No: 18409
Additional information: Son of Samuel and Alice Smith, of 4, James Terrace, Whitby, Cheshire.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: XXI. FF. 18A.
Cemetery: LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY

Certificate

In Memory of
Private G W SMITH

18409, 6th Bn., Cheshire Regiment
who died age 25
on 03 November 1917
Son of Samuel and Alice Smith, of 4, James Terrace, Whitby, Cheshire.
Remembered with honour
LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY



Commemorated in perpetuity by
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission



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