Cojeul British Cemetery, St. Martin-sur-Cojeul

Description

This battlefield cemetery was partly destroyed during the war. The graves that vanished are commemorated by special memorials. The cemetery adjoins a busy railway line and is accessible via a grassy strip that is not a component of the design, as it is at Hamel Military Cemetery, for example. On either side of the field with graves two elevated platforms have been installed, similar to the situation at La Neuville British Cemetery. However, due to its mini- mum size, the War Stone is absent here. The entrance is formed by reinforced piers of stone between which there are two posts. The seat opposite the entrance platform is the mirror image of the entrance, as is the case at Beaurains Road Cemetery. At the entrance, the platform lies several steps higher than the entrance, but the platform edge disappears into the ground, as it were, because the ground ascends slightly. The Cross of Sacrifice stands on a second platform, in a plant bed with shrubs, on the other side of the cemetery. This plant bed is enclosed between two plant beds with yew, which have been incorporated into the wall around the cemetery. Small flowering shrubs are situated on the four corners of the field with graves.

Opposite the seat there is an exceptional monument ‘to the 64th brigade’, which was not designed in the style of IWGC monuments. (Geurst, 2010, p.248)

Bibliography

Geurst, J. (2010) Cemeteries of the Great War by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers.

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Listing Reference

Client

Imperial War Graves Commission