In Memory of

J CRAGGS

Private
42408
15th Bn., Durham Light Infantry
who died on
Saturday, 16th September 1916.

 

 

Commemorative Information

Cemetery:

A.I.F. BURIAL GROUND, FLERS, Somme, France

Grave Reference/
Panel Number:

I. J. 20.

Location:

A.I.F. Burial Ground is 2 kilometres north of the village of Flers, in the Department of the Somme. Travel south-west of Bapaume on the D929 in the direction of Albert for 6 kilometres to the village of Le Sars. Turn left eastwards on the D11 in the direction of Geudecourt for 3.5 kilometres to the D74/D197 junction. Continue along the D74 in the direction of Geudecourt for 500 metres when a CWGC signpost will be seen indicating the A.I.F. Burial Ground along a track to the right.

Historical Information:

Flers was captured on the 15th September, 1916, in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette; it was entered by the New Zealand and 41st Divisions, following the newly-revealed Tanks. It was lost in March, 1918, and retaken at the end of the following August. The cemetery was begun by Australian medical units, posted in the neighbouring caves, in November, 1916-February, 1917; and these original graves are in Plot I, Rows A and B. It was very greatly enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration of 3,842 British and French graves from the battlefields of the Somme, and afterwards from a wider area; the great majority of these graves date from the autumn of 1916, but one is of 1914, and others of the spring of 1917 and the spring and summer of 1918. There are now, 3473, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these 2261 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 15 Australian soldiers, five from the United Kingdom and three from New Zealand, known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of three soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried by the Germans in 1915-16 in a cemetery at Flers, who graves could not be found. Also commemorated in this site are 173 Foreign National casualties. The cemetery covers an area of 9,826 square metres and is enclosed by a rubble wall. The following were among the burial grounds from which British graves were taken to this cemetery:- FACTORY CORNER, FLERS, a little West of the crossing of the roads from Eaucourt-L'Abbaye to Gueudecourt and from Flers to Ligny-Thilloy. This place, which had been a German Headquarters for Artillery and Engineers and had a German Cemetery, was taken by the 1st Canterbury Infantry Regiment on the 25th September, 1916, and again by the 7th East Yorks on the 27th August, 1918. Fifteen soldiers from the United Kingdom and 13 from Australia were buried here in October, 1916-March, 1917, and in August, 1918. NORTH ROAD CEMETERY, FLERS, North-West of the village, at the crossing of the Eaucourt-L'Abbaye road with "North Road" (to Factory Corner). Here were buried, in the winter of 1916-17, 13 Australian soldiers and seven from the United Kingdom.