CWGC Cemetery: TEMPLEUX-LE-GUERARD BRITISH CEMETERY

Visiting Information

Wheelchair access to this cemetery is possible, but may be by alternative entrance. For further information regarding wheelchair access, please contact our Enquiries Section on 01628 507200.

Local Information

Templeux-le-Guerard is a village 26 kilometres east of Peronne. Templeux-le-Guerard British Cemetery is south-east of the village on the road to Haricourt.

Historical Information

The village was taken early in April, 1917, lost on the 21st March, 1918, and retaken by the 15th Suffolks of the 74th (Yeomanry) Division on the following 18th September. Templeux-Le-Guerard British Cemetery was begun by the 59th Division in April, 1917, and carried on by other units until August, 1917, and again in September and October, 1918. It was largely increased after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the battlefields (of April, 1917, and March and September, 1918) surrounding the village; and in 1930 the British graves from two cemeteries named below were brought in. There are now over 750, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, nearly a quarter are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 16 soldiers from the United Kingdom, known or believed to be buried among them. The cemetery covers an area of 2,509 square metres and is enclosed on three sides by a low rubble wall. The irregular lettering of the Rows is due to the concentrations of graves carried out after the Armistice. GOUY BRITISH CEMETERY (Aisne), concentrated to Templeux-le-Guerard British Cemetery in 1930, was in the hamlet of Rue-Neuve (or Rue-du-Moulin), on the road from Gouy to Estrees. It stood in a paddock among pasture fields, close to a farmhouse. It was made by the 50th Division (as very recently reconstituted) in October, 1918, and it contained the graves of 127 soldiers from the United Kingdom (almost all from that Division) and one from Australia; the dates of death were the 3rd-10th October, except for one soldier who died on the 18th. Le Catelet and Gouy were captured by the 50th Division on the 3rd October, 1918. STE EMILIE BRITISH CEMETERY, VILLERS-FAUCON, also concentrated to Templeux-le-Guerard British Cemetery in 1930, stood in the grounds of the Chateau of Ste Emilie, between the house and the railway station. It was begun by the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division in May, 1917, carried on by Cavalry and other units and Field Ambulances until March, 1918, and used again by British and American troops in September-November, 1918. (The American 27th and 30th Divisions, with Australian troops, attacked and carried the Hindenburg Line, a little East of Ste Emilie, on the 27th-30th September, 1918.) It contained the graves of 196 United Kingdom soldiers, 108 American, 22 Australian and one South African; but the American graves (mainly of the 107th and 108th Infantry Regiments were removed to Somme American Cemetery, Bony, before 1922.