Delville Wood Cemetery

Overview

Delville Wood Cemetery lies opposite the Delville Wood South African Memorial and was designed by Sir Herbert Baker. It is located just off the D20 that runs between Longueval and Guillemont, 11 km east of Albert, France. The cemetery contains 5,523 burials, of which two-thirds are unidentified. It was constructed after the Armistice and mainly contains bodies recovered from the battlefields, with a smaller number of graves moved in from nearby French and German cemeteries.

Almost all casualties date from July to September 1916 and are from the various Battles of Delville Wood. The high proportion of unknown graves likely reflects the lengthy period that elapsed before many bodies were removed from the battlefield and buried. Remains were moved from several German cemeteries: Bazentin-Le-Petit German Cemetery yielded five British soldiers killed in March or April 1918; Courcelette Communal Cemetery German Extension contained three British and one Canadian soldier, along with 1,040 German soldiers, though three of the four Commonwealth graves had been destroyed by artillery fire, so special memorials exist for those three soldiers; Guillemont German Cemetery No. 1 held seven British soldiers killed between May and July 1918 plus 221 German soldiers; Maricourt (De La Cote) German Cemetery provided five British soldiers and airmen; Martinpuich German Cemetery No. 1 contained one British sailor and six soldiers, all killed in March 1918; and Martinpuich German Cemetery No. 2 held one British soldier.

Allied cemeteries also contributed remains: Angle Wood Cemetery, Ginchy, held 27 British soldiers, largely from the London Regiment, buried in an excavated shell-hole in Angle Wood; Battery Copse Cemetery, Curlu, contained 17 British graves alongside French graves; and Ferme-Rouge French Military Cemetery, near Battery Copse Cemetery, held one British soldier killed in March 1917. The cemetery includes special memorials to the 27 casualties believed to be buried among the 3,593 unidentified burials.

Sergeant Albert Gill of the 1st Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps is buried here; he was killed on 27 July 1916 during the fighting in Delville Wood while standing up under fire to direct his troops, an act for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.