| Memorial: | PLOEGSTEERT MEMORIAL |
| Grave Reference/ Panel Number: |
Panel 9 |
| Location: | The Ploegsteert Memorial stands in Berks Cemetery Extension,
which is located 12.5 kilometres south of Ieper town centre, on the N365 leading from
Ieper to Mesen (Messines), Ploegsteert and on to Armentieres. From Ieper town centre the Rijselsestraat runs from the market square, through the Lille Gate (Rijselpoort) and directly over the crossroads with the Ieper ring road. The road name then changes to the Rijselseweg (N336). 3.5 kilometres along the N336 lies a fork junction with the N365. The N365, which forms the right hand fork, leads to the town of Mesen. The Cemetery lies 3 kilometres beyond Mesen on the right hand side of the N365, and opposite Hyde Park Corner Royal Berks Cemetery. The Memorial commemorates over 11,000 men who have no known grave. They fought in 1914 or 1918 on Belgian soil beside French troops, and died in France or Belgium when the frontier was of little interest in this area in which trench warfare lasted longest. The Memorial is a covered circular colonnade, 20 metres across and 11 metres high, enclosing an open space, and is entered by an opening between two stone lions. The names of the dead are carved on panels set in the walls of the colonnade. They belonged to thirty-six different Divisions and to a hundred Regiments; of these Regiments the Rifle Brigade with 559 names, the Northumberland Fusiliers with 535 and the Durham Light Infantry with 444 claim the largest individual shares. |
| Historical Information: | The Memorial in Berks Cemetery Extension, Ploegsteert, is one
of those erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to record the names of the
officers and men who fell in the Great War and whose graves are not known. It serves the
area from the line Caestre-Dranoutre-Warneton, on the north to the line
Haverskerque-Estaires-Fournes on the south, in which the best-known features are the towns
of Hazebrouck, Merville, Bailleul and Armentieres, the Forest of Nieppe, and Ploegsteert
Wood; and it covers the period from the arrival of the III Corps in this area in 1914 to
the date of the Armistice with Germany. The Battles of Ypres and Messines fall to the
north of these limits, and the Offensives of 1915 mainly to the south; the normal state of
the area, during the greater part of the War, was one of trench warfare. The Memorial is a covered circular colonnade, 20 metres across and eleven metres high, enclosing an open space, and entered by an opening between two stone lions. The names of the dead are carved on panels set in the walls of the colonnade. They belonged to thirty-six different Divisions and to a hundred Regiments; of these Regiments the Rifle Brigade with 559 names, the Northumberland Fusiliers with 535 and the Durham Light Infantry with 444 claim the largest individual shares. |
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