Euston Road Cemetery

Written by Mike
Euston Road Cemetery, Colincamps.  The cemetery covers an area of 3,894 square metres.  October 5, 2002.  (0203779) Euston Road Cemetery, Colincamps. The cemetery covers an area of 3,894 square metres. October 5, 2002. (0203779)

Colincamps and ‘Euston’ were within the British lines before the British offensive of July 1916 and Euston Road Cemetery was used as a front line burial ground during and after the unsuccessful attack on Serre on July 1, 1916. 

After the German retreat in March 1917 Euston Road Cemetery was scarcely used.  Towards the end of March 1918 it and the village of Colincamps passed into enemy hands, but that was the limit of the German advance.

The line was held and pushed forward by the New Zealand Division and Euston Road Cemetery was used again in April and May 1918.

Euston Road Cemetery is particularly associated with three dates and engagements:

  • The attack on Serre on July 1, 1916
  • The capture of Beaumont Hamel on November 13, 1916
  • The German attack on the 3rd New Zealand (Rifle) Brigade trenches before Colincamps on April 5, 1918

The whole of Plot I (except for five graves in the last row) represents the original cemetery consisting of 501 graves.  After the Armistice 758 graves were brought in from neighbouring communes.  Some came from smaller cemeteries while the rest were recovered from being scattered over the battlefields.

There are special headstones for 17 New Zealand, 14 UK and one Canadian soldiers believed to be buried here.  One New Zealand and one UK soldier are commemorated here because they were buried in smaller cemeteries and their graves were destroyed in later battles.
 
Within Euston Road Cemetery there a number of interesting graves.

  • Second Lieutenant Henry Myrddin Jones, MID, of the 19th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers was killed in action near Beaumont Hamel on November 13, 1916 aged 25.  He was the son of Henry and Charlotte E A Jones of 3 Knoll Avenue, Neath, Glamorgan.  (I G69)
  • Second Lieutenant John Reginald Stagg, DCM, of the 17th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment was killed in action on September 17, 1916 aged 37.  He was the son of Rowland and Helen Annie Stagg of Beckenham, Kent.  (I F43)
  • Two brothers are buried in the cemetery.  Private F Walsgrave (G/16084) and Private H Walsgrave (G/16085) of the 13th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment both died on September 23, 1916.  They are buried in adjoining graves.  (III I6 and II I5)

Euston Road Cemetery Fact Panel

Country Known Graves Unknown Graves Total Graves
United Kingdom 807 152 959
New Zealand 285 17 302
Australia 25 1 26
South Africa 4 - 4
India 1 - 1
  1,122 170 1,292
Area 3,894 square metres
Mike

Mike

Mike McCormac has been a photographer since about ten years old.  He's a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and lives in a village in the hills near Paphos in Cyprus.

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