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CWGC Cemetery: TYNE COT CEMETERY

Country

Belgium

Locality

Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen

Identified Casualties

3588

Visiting Information

There are two separate registers for this site - one for the cemetery and one for the memorial. The cemetery register will be found in the gatehouse as you enter the cemetery, and the memorial register will be found in the left hand rotunda of the memorial as you face the memorial. Wheelchair access to this cemetery is possible via an entrance at the rear. For further information regarding wheelchair access, please contact our Enquiries Section on 01628 507200.

Local Information

Tyne Cot Cemetery is located 9 kilometres north east of Ieper town centre, on the Tynecotstraat, a road leading from the Zonnebeekseweg (N332).

Historical Information

'Tyne Cot' or 'Tyne Cottage' was the name given by the Northumberland Fusiliers to a barn which stood near the level crossing on the Passchendaele-Broodseinde road. The barn, which had become the centre of five or six German blockhouses, or pill-boxes, was captured by the 2nd Australian Division on 4 October 1917, in the advance on Passchendaele. One of these pill-boxes was unusually large and was used as an advanced dressing station after its capture. From 6 October to the end of March 1918, 343 graves were made, on two sides of it, by the 50th (Northumbrian) and 33rd Divisions, and by two Canadian units. The cemetery was in German hands again from 13 April to 28 September, when it was finally recaptured, with Passchendaele, by the Belgian Army. TYNE COT CEMETERY was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when remains were brought in from the battlefields of Passchendaele and Langemarck, and from a few small burial grounds. It is now the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world in terms of burials. At the suggestion of King George V, who visited the cemetery in 1922, the Cross of Sacrifice was placed on the original large pill-box. There are three other pill-boxes in the cemetery. There are now 11,953 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in Tyne Cot Cemetery. 8,366 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to more than 80 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate 20 casualties whose graves were destroyed by shell fire. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker. The TYNE COT MEMORIAL forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery and commemorates nearly 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom and New Zealand who died in the Ypres Salient after 16 August 1917 and whose graves are not known. The memorial stands close to the farthest point in Belgium reached by Commonwealth forces in the First World War until the final advance to victory. The memorial was designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by F V Blundstone.

Cemetery Photo

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CWGC Cemetery Photo: TYNE COT CEMETERY

CWGC Cemetery Photo: TYNE COT CEMETERY

Cemetery Plan

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CWGC Cemetery Plan: TYNE COT CEMETERY

CWGC Cemetery Plan: TYNE COT CEMETERY

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