CWGC Cemetery: VADENCOURT BRITISH CEMETERY, MAISSEMY

Visiting Information

Wheelchair access with some difficulty. For further information regarding wheelchair access, please contact our enquiries department on telephone number 01628 634221.

Local Information

Maissemy is a village about 5 kilometres north-west of St.Quentin and about two kilometres north of the small town of Vermand. Vadencourt British Cemetery lies to the north of Maissemy and is on the west side of the road from Vermand to Bellenglise.

Historical Information

Maissemy passed into British hands in 1917. It was captured by the enemy on the 21st March, 1918, in spite of a strong resistance by the 24th Division and the 2/4th Royal Berks, and retaken by the 1st Division on the following 15th September. At the beginning of October, the IX Corps Main Dressing Station was at Vadencourt. Vadencourt British Cemetery (called at first Vadencourt New British Cemetery) was begun in August, 1917, by fighting units, and used until March, 1918; and in October and November, 1918, it was used by the 5th, 47th and 61st Casualty Clearing Stations (at Bihecourt, on the road to Vermand) as well as by Field Ambulances. These original graves are in Plots I-III; and after the Armistice those plots were enlarged, and Plots IV and V made, by the concentration of graves from the surrounding battlefields and from a few small burial grounds. These scattered graves were mainly of April, 1917, and March, April, September and October, 1918, and many of them represented casualties of the 59th (North Midland) Division. At the same time four French, 31 American and 28 German Graves, all of October, 1918, were removed to other cemeteries. There are now over 750, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over 200 are unidentified. Five Indian Cavalry soldiers, whose bodies were cremated, are named on special memorials. The Cemetery covers an area of 2,953 square metres and is enclosed by rubble wall. The cemeteries from which British graves were removed to Vadencourt British Cemetery included these two: VADENCOURT CHATEAU CEMETERY, a little further West, in which nine soldiers from the United Kingdom and six from Canada were buried in April-August, 1917. VENDELLES CHURCHYARD EXTENSION, made by the 59th Division in April, 1917, and containing the graves of 36 soldiers from the United Kingdom.