Buttes New British Cemetery is a

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations m ...

burial ground for the dead of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

located in the

Ypres Salient The Ypres Salient around Ypres in Belgium was the scene of several battles and an extremely important part of the Western front during the First World War. Ypres district Ypres lies at the junction of the Ypres–Comines Canal and the Ieperlee ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

on the Western Front.

History

Many of the men buried in the cemetery died as a result of the conditions in the trenches located in the Polygon Wood Sector of the

during the winter of 1917 to 1918. After the war, a number of the dead interred in the area were brought to a location eight kilometres to the east of Ieper and re-buried in what was named Buttes New British Cemetery. The cemetery is located in the northeastern corner of Polygon Wood.Buttes New British Cemetery (New Zealand) Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 18 September 2014 The name is derived from an old butte, used as a rifle range by the Belgian Army prior to the war, which is on the western side of the cemetery. A memorial to the

Australian 5th Division The 5th Division was an infantry division of the Australian Army which served during the First and Second World Wars. The division was formed in February 1916 as part of the expansion of the Australian Imperial Force infantry brigades. In add ...

is located on top of the butte; this memorial was constructed with the assistance of German prisoners-of-war.Gray, 2010, pp. 170–171 Polygon Wood Cemetery is nearby.Polygon Wood Cemetery
Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 18 September 2014 Buttes New British Cemetery contains the remains of 2,108 Allied soldiers, the majority of whom are unknown. Over half of the burials are British; 564 are soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force, 162 soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and five were from Canada. There are also 30 burials of unknown nationality. Most of the dead were killed during 1917, but some date from fighting in the area in 1914, 1916 and 1918. A memorial service is held every year at the cemetery on Anzac Day, 25 April.Gray, 2010, pp. 170–171 Bodies continue to be occasionally discovered in the area and are often interred at the cemetery; five Australian soldiers whose remains were found in 2006 by a drainlayer were buried in October 2007 in a ceremony attended by the Governor-General of Australia,

Michael Jeffery Major General Philip Michael Jeffery, (12 December 1937 – 18 December 2020) was a senior Australian Army officer and vice-regal representative. He was the 28th governor of Western Australia from 1993 to 2000, and the 24th governor-general o ...

and the

Prime Minister of New Zealand The prime minister of New Zealand ( mi, Te pirimia o Aotearoa) is the head of government of New Zealand. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, took office on 26 October 2017. The prime minister (inform ...

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

.Gray, 2010, p. 174

Buttes New British Cemetery (New Zealand) Memorial

The cemetery also includes the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing, designed by the English architect

Charles Holden Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

, in memory of 383 soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force killed in the period September 1917 to May 1918 and who have no known grave.McGibbon, 2001, p. 25

Gallery

File:Buttes new british cemetery 01.jpg, Back side of Buttes New British Cemetery File:Buttes new british cemetery 02.jpg, View of Buttes New British cemetery, including the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing. File:5th Australian monument memorial plaque.jpg, Plaque on the 5th Australian monument memorial, next to Buttes New British Cemetery. CWGC - Stone of Remembrance.jpg, The Stone of Remembrance

Notes

References

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History

Buttes New British Cemetery (New Zealand) Memorial

Gallery

Notes

References

Further reading