Tyne Cot Cemetery
| Tyne Cot Cemetery | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Country: | Belgium |
| Location: | West-Vlaanderen |
| Coordinates: | |
| Type: | Public |
| Owned by: | Commonwealth War Graves Commission |
| Number of gravesites: | 3587 known, 8,369 unknown |
| Website: | Tyne Cot Cemetery |
The Tyne Cot Cemetery is located outside Ieper (Ypres) Belgium and contains burials from the Great War. There are 451 Canadian buried in the cemetery. The cemetery also contains the Tyne Cot Memorial commemorates nearly 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom and New Zealand who died in the Ypres Salient after 16 August 1917 and whose graves are not known.
History
'Tyne Cot' or 'Tyne Cottage' was the name given by the Northumberland Fusiliers to a barn which stood near the level crossing on the Passchendaele-Broodseinde road. The barn, which had become the centre of five or six German blockhouses, or pill-boxes, was captured by the 3rd Australian Division on 4 October 1917, in the advance on Passchendaele.
One of these pill-boxes was unusually large and was used as an advanced dressing station after its capture. From 6 October to the end of March 1918, 343 graves were made, on two sides of it, by the 50th (Northumbrian) and 33rd Divisions, and by two Canadian units. The cemetery was in German hands again from 13 April to 28 September, when it was finally recaptured, with Passchendaele, by the Belgian Army.
Tyne Cot Cemetery was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when remains were brought in from the battlefields of Passchendaele and Langemarck, and from a few small burial grounds.
It is now the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world in terms of burials. At the suggestion of King George V, who visited the cemetery in 1922, the Cross of Sacrifice was placed on the original large pill-box. There are three other pill-boxes in the cemetery.
There are now 11,956 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in Tyne Cot Cemetery. 8,369 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to more than 80 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate 20 casualties whose graves were destroyed by shell fire. There are 4 German burials, 3 being unidentified.
The Tyne Cot Cemetery Memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery and commemorates nearly 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom and New Zealand who died in the Ypres Salient after 16 August 1917 and whose graves are not known. The memorial stands close to the farthest point in Belgium reached by Commonwealth forces in the First World War until the final advance to victory.
Location
Tyne Cot Cemetery is located 9 Kms north-east of Ieper (Ypres) town centre, on the Tynecotstraat, a road leading from the Zonnebeekseweg (N332).
"We Rest Here"
The following members related to Signals are buried here.
| Headstone | Service Number | Rank and Name | Grave Location |
|---|---|---|---|
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541643 | Sapper CF Patterson | Sp. Mem. 67. |