CWGC Cemetery: WANCOURT BRITISH CEMETERY

Visiting Information

Wheelchair access to the 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

Wancourt is a village about 8 kilometres south-east of Arras. It is 2 kilometres south of the main road from Arras to Cambrai. The cemetery is a short distance south-east of the village just off the D 35 road.

Historical Information

Wancourt was captured on 12 April 1917 after very heavy fighting and the advance was continued on the following days. The cemetery, called at first Cojeul Valley Cemetery, or River Road Cemetery, was opened about ten days later; it was used until October 1918, but was in German hands from March 1918 until 26 August, when the Canadian Corps recaptured Wancourt . At the Armistice, the cemetery contained 410 graves, but was very greatly increased in the following years when graves were brought in from the following small cemeteries and isolated positions on the battlefields south-east of Arras :- ST. MARTIN-CROISILLES ROAD CEMETERY, in the commune of ST. MARTIN-SUR-COJEUL. In this graveyard, about midway on the road, were buried 15 British officers and men who fell on the 9th April, 1917, or the four following days, and of whom 13 belonged to the 1st East Yorkshire Regiment. SHAFT TRENCH CEMETERY, in the commune of HENINEL, about a mile from that village on the road to Croisilles. Here, in April, May and June, 1917, 19 British soldiers were buried by the 50th (Northumbrian) Division. SIGNAL TRENCH CEMETERY, HENINEL. Here, on the further side of the ridge between Wancourt and Cherisy, "in a rather broken part of the British front line", 22 British soldiers were buried in April and May, 1917. FONTAINE ROAD CEMETERY, HENINEL. In this graveyard, slightly North of Signal Trench Cemetery, 17 British officers and men (of whom 15 belonged to the 2nd Royal Welch Fusiliers) were buried in April, 1917. HENINEL-CHERISY ROAD WEST CEMETERY, HENINEL, which was about half a mile East of Heninel village, and contained 25 British graves of April, 1917. THE LINCOLNS CEMETERY, ST. MARTIN-SUR-COJEUL, about a mile South-East of that village, where 22 non-commissioned officers and men of the 1st Lincolns, who fell on the 11th April, 1917, were buried. HENIN NORTH CEMETERY, HENIN-SUR-COJEUL, about a mile North of the village, containing the graves of 29 British soldiers who fell on the 9th April, 1917, and almost all of whom belonged to the 2nd Wilts or the 18th King's Liverpools. The cemetery now contains 1, 936 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 829 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 76 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and to 20 who were buried in Signal Trench Cemetery whose graves were destroyed in later battles. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.