Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery

Did You Know?

• The Battle of Fromelles has been described as 'the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history.'
• In July 2014 a museum/visitor centre was opened immediately east of the cemetery dedicated to the battle and the casualties.
• One identified soldier was Lieutenant-Colonel Ignatius Bertram Norris, who commanded 53rd Battalion in the attack on 19 July 1916.

Discovery of mass graves

For more than nine decades, the mass graves hidden at Pheasant Wood lay untouched. Their discovery began with Lambis Englezos, a retired Australian teacher. After travelling to Fromelles in 2002, he noticed a mismatch between the number of soldiers listed as missing from the battle and the count of unidentified burials. He began to suspect that the Germans had placed the unaccounted-for dead in unmarked pits, never to be recovered.

In May 2006, journalist Ray Martin and producer Stephen Rice from the program 60 Minutes looked into Englezos’s theory, visiting Fromelles to review his evidence. Their July 2006 broadcast backed his findings and called on the Australian government to act. Years of digging through aerial photos, Red Cross files, and German military records followed. This research led to the formation of an Australian Army History Unit and a submission to a British parliamentary group focused on war graves and battlefields.

The evidence grew strong enough to justify an official probe. In May 2008, the Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division conducted a test excavation at the suspected burial sites. That limited dig confirmed that the ground held the remains of British and Australian soldiers from the First World War, which secured funding for a full recovery. Oxford Archaeology ran the main excavation from May to September 2009.

They unearthed 250 bodies from five mass graves, along with roughly 6,200 artifacts. Since then, authorities have asked relatives of soldiers known to have died at Fromelles to come forward. LGC Forensics is now using DNA analysis to try to identify the recovered remains.

Planning

After the discovery of mass graves at Pheasant Wood in May 2008, the British and Australian governments created the Fromelles Management Board (FMB), a jointly funded body with three goals: recovering the bodies, identifying them, and reburying them. The FMB coordinated French, British, and Australian organizations and supervised the entire project. While the British and Australian governments, through the FMB, kept overall control, they asked the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) to act as their agent and handle daily project management.

The CWGC also provided the Fromelles Project Manager, who sat on the Board. Beyond managing the project, the CWGC was asked to build a new cemetery for the reburial of the recovered bodies. Although the British and Australian governments made this request, designing, constructing, and maintaining such cemeteries falls within the CWGC’s core responsibilities. Therefore, the estimated 900,000 euro construction cost came from funding provided by CWGC member countries.

The British and Australian governments split the costs for the excavations, DNA analysis, and reburial ceremonies equally.

The cemetery’s plans and designs were created by the commission’s architect, Barry Edwards. A key challenge was choosing a suitable location. The original site of the mass graves was considered and even offered by the landowner, but the ground was too prone to flooding. The chosen site lies about 120 meters southwest of the original battlefield mass graves, on higher ground just outside the village of Fromelles.

The cemetery has a hexagonal shape, with radial rows of headstones leading to a raised Cross of Sacrifice on its southern side. Because the cemetery sits on higher land, the Cross of Sacrifice was deliberately placed so it would appear on the skyline when seen from the nearby V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial. That memorial is one of several places in and around Fromelles where those who died in the battle are remembered. From the elevated terrace of the Cross of Sacrifice, the 1916 Fromelles battlefield is also visible.

Construction

The company Beton-Bouw Bentein BVBA, established in 1921, was chosen to build the cemetery. The firm had prior experience with the commission and had taken part in rebuilding Flanders after the conflict. Before any work could start, French authorities inspected the area for leftover wartime ordnance and debris. This check occurred in April 2009. While no live munitions were uncovered, the team cleared away barbed wire and shell casings. Actual construction began in May 2009, with crews leveling the ground for foundations and putting up temporary hoardings around the site.

Even though the main construction and excavation zones were off-limits, public interest remained high. Media, school groups, and relatives of the Fromelles fallen all visited. The site featured display boards with information and commemorative plaques. Artworks on the theme of remembrance, created by schoolchildren from the UK, France, and Australia, were mounted on aluminum panels attached to the hoardings. The UK contribution came from Year 7 students at Stonyhurst St Mary’s Hall in Lancashire. In June 2009, these children traveled to Fromelles to see their work on display.

The site was a former farmer’s field on a gentle slope. Its heavy clay soil shifted seasonally when wet, so the design required substantial foundations and drainage. The main support for above-ground structures came from 210 concrete piles driven vertically into the ground, each up to 7 meters deep. A Belgian specialist firm, Wig-Palen, handled the piling work in June 2009. They used a 62-ton machine to drill and compact the holes. As the drill was extracted, concrete was poured into the hollow shaft to fill the void. Steel reinforcement cages were then placed into the still-wet concrete. This screw-piling method made the foundations both end-bearing and friction-bearing, boosting the stability of the piles and the structures they support.

Burials

Following their recovery, the remains of the 250 British and Australian soldiers were stored in temporary mortuary facilities. Since any possible identification would take many months, it was decided to carry out the reburials as soon as the cemetery was ready, and use temporary headstones. Following the report of the Identification Board, in March 2010, permanent headstones were installed. The headstones include any names and nationalities that it has been possible to ascertain using historical, anthropological, archaeological and DNA evidence, but where the identity is unknown the carved inscription on the headstone will simply read 'Known Unto God', the standard phrase used for the headstones of unknown soldiers.

The inaugural reburial and ceremony took place at 11 am local time on 30 January 2010, with around 400 people watching from the viewing areas outside the cemetery walls. The cemetery grounds were covered with a light dusting of snow. Orders of service were available in English and French, and the ceremony was attended by representatives from Australia, France, the UK and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, all of whom paid tribute to the fallen.

Representing the UK government was Kevan Jones, the Veterans Minister. Representing Australia was Alan Griffin, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, while from the French military was the former Chief of Defence of the French Army, Bruno Cuche. In his speech, General Cuche paid tribute to the sacrifice made by the young soldiers that fought in the battle. The gun salute was fired by soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and the Australian Army.

A guard of honour was formed by forty French veterans, each carrying a flag representing a town or village in the Lille area, with the flag for Fromelles itself dating from 1914. The pallbearers were from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, and standard bearers from the Royal British Legion were also present. Following the ceremony, a reception was hosted by the Mayor, Hubert Huchette, and the people of Fromelles.