Spoilbank Cemetery

Spoilbank
Spoilbank
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
	Used for those deceased 1915–1918
Established	February 1915
Location	50°49′13″N2°53′57″E / 50.82028°N 2.89917°E ; near Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium
Designed by	Sir Edwin Lutyens
Total burials	520
Unknowns	125
Burials by nation
	Allied Powers: United Kingdom: 426; Canada: 16; Australia: 67;
Burials by war
	World War I: 520
	Statistics source: battlefields1418

Last updated March 09, 2023

Spoilbank is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front.

Foundation

Commonwealth troops began using the site as a cemetery in February 1915.^[2] The cemetery is named after the bank of spoil left over from the digging of the Ypres-Comines canal,^[3] which was strategically important in the relatively flat Flemish countryside.

The cemetery is also referred to as Gordon Terrace Cemetery and Chester Farm Lower Cemetery.^[4]

There are special markers for eleven soldiers (ten British and one Australian) who are known or believed to be buried in the cemetery but whose actual plot was lost or destroyed.^[1] These stones usually have the Rudyard Kipling-derived footnote "Their glory shall not be blotted out".

The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens upon enlargement after the war when graves were concentrated from the nearby battlefields.

Notable graves

The cemetery has the graves of two brothers, George and John Keating, who were both killed on 17 February 1915. They are buried next to each other.^[4]

The cemetery also has the grave of Private R H Reeves, who was killed on 8 October 1915 by a grenade. He was 15 years old.^[5]

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References

1 2 wo1.be Archived 2005-01-18 at the Wayback Machine , undated, accessed 17 February 2006
↑ Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry, undated, accessed 17 February 2007.
↑ battlefields1418, undated, accessed 17 February 2007.
1 2 Duffy, Michael firstworldwar.com, 1 September 2002, accessed 17 February 2007.
↑ wo1.be Archived 2007-02-28 at the Wayback Machine , undated, accessed 17 February 2007.

External links

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[wo1-1] 1 2 wo1.be Archived 2005-01-18 at the Wayback Machine , undated, accessed 17 February 2006

[cwgc-2] Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry, undated, accessed 17 February 2007.

[b1418-3] ttlefields1418, undated, accessed 17 February 2007.

[fww-4] 1 2 Duffy, Michael firstworldwar.com, 1 September 2002, accessed 17 February 2007.

[wo1db-5] wo1.be Archived 2007-02-28 at the Wayback Machine , undated, accessed 17 February 2007.

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