Artillery Wood Cemetery, Boesinghe

Artillery Wood Cemetery

Boezinge is located north of the town of Ypres (now Ieper) on the N369 road in the direction of Diksmuide. The Cemetery is located in Poezelstraat, east of the village. On the N369 turn right over the bridge, and straight on along Molenstraat. Poezelstraat is the second turning on the right after the bridge and the cemetery is on the right hand side, about 200 metres from the junction of Molenstraat.

Boesinghe is a village and commune in the Province of West Flanders, and north of Ypres. The commune lies on both sides of the Yser Canal. The village itself is on the west side of the Yser, and was, until July 1917, directly faced by the German front line on the east side; but in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, begun on the 31st July, the British front was pushed forward. The Guards Division captured Artillery Wood, a copse on the north side of the railway line to Thourout, about half a mile east of the canal. Artillery Wood Cemetery is a little north of where the Wood was located. The cemetery was started by the Guards Division after the action on 31st July, and was used as a front-line cemetery until March 1918. It contained, at the time of the Armistice, 141 graves (of which 42 belonged to the Royal Artillery whose gun sites were close by in 1917-18); but it was then greatly enlarged by the concentration of 1,154 graves from the battlefields and small cemeteries on both sides of Boesinghe. It now contains the graves of 1,243 soldiers from the United Kingdom, 30 from Canada, ten from Newfoundland, five from Australia, two from New Zealand, one from South Africa and four whose unit in our forces is not known. The unnamed graves number 506; but special memorials are erected to twelve soldiers from the United Kingdom, known or believed to be buried among them. The cemetery covers an area of 5,312 square yards, and it is bounded on the road side by a red brick wall and on the other sides by a low curb and a thorn hedge.

The more important of the small cemeteries concentrated into Artillery Wood Cemetery were the following:

BOESINGHE CHATEAU GROUNDS CEMETERY, on the South-West side of the road between the village and the station, containing 19 graves of soldiers from the United Kingdom (mainly of the Guards Division) who fell in June-August 1917. The Chateau grounds contained other British graves, now removed to Artillery Wood Cemetery, and also a French Military Cemetery.
BRISSEIN HOUSE CEMETERY, BIXSCHOOTE, 1.25 miles North of Langemarck village, a French Military Cemetery in which 22 soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in December 1917-March 1918.
CAPTAIN'S FARM CEMETERY, LANGEMARCK, 1.5 miles West of Langemarck village, a group of graves in which 63 soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in July 1917-March 1918, chiefly by the Guards and 29th Divisions.

Further Information

Among those buried here are:

EVANS, Pte Ellis Humphrey, 61117, 15th Bn Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Died 31st July 1917. Age 30. Son of Evan and Mary Evans, of Trawsfynydd, Merioneth. One of the war poets " Hedd Wyn" (II.F.11)

LEDWIDGE, L/Cpl Francis Edward. 16138. 1st Bn Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. Died 31st July 1917. Age 29. Son of Patrick and Anne Ledwidge, of Slane, Co. Meath. A noted Poet. (II. B. 5)