Prowse Point Military Cemetery
A Salient cemetery named for a hero of the 1914 stand.
Tucked within the Ypres Salient on the Western Front in Belgium, Prowse Point Military Cemetery is a First World War burial ground maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. King Albert I of Belgium granted the land to the United Kingdom in perpetuity, honouring the British Empire’s wartime sacrifices in defending and liberating his country.
Quick Facts
- Use dates
- 1914-1918
- Established
- 1914
- Designer
- W H Cowlishaw
- Nearest town
- Ypres
- West Flanders
- Belgium
- Total
- 233
- Unknowns
- 1
- By country
- Allied Powers:
- United Kingdom: 165
- Canada: 1
- Australia: 13
- New Zealand: 42
- Central Powers:
- Germany: 12
- By war
- World War I: 233
Facts from the source article.
Foundation
Prowse Point Military Cemetery takes its name from Major Charles Bertie Prowse, later a brigadier-general, whose bravery during a stand by the 1st Battalions of the Hampshire Regiment and Somerset Light Infantry in October 1914 led to the site being named after him. This is the only cemetery on the Salient named for an individual. Burials began in November 1914 and continued until April 1918, when fighting moved beyond the Ploegsteert area. The cemetery was designed by W H Cowlishaw. Among those interred is Sergeant W A Connor of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, a recipient of the French Croix de Guerre.
Later burials
The site saw heavy fighting at numerous points in the war, and remains of combatants are still occasionally discovered in the area. Private Harry Wilkinson of the Lancashire Fusiliers, originally listed on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, had his body recovered and was buried here in 2001. More recently, the remains of Private Richard Lancaster of the Lancashire Fusiliers, plus two others unidentified, were found and buried at Prowse Point with full military honours; the ceremony was attended by his granddaughter.
More in Funerary and Memory Sites of the First World War
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced