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In Memory of
A Burrell
Private
12952
103rd Coy., Machine Gun Corps (Inf)
who died on
Saturday 1 July 1916 . Age 20
| Additional Information | Son of Mrs. Burrell, of Craigs, Polmont, Stirlingshire. |
| Cemetery: | OVILLERS MILITARY CEMETERYSomme, France |
| Grave Reference/ Panel Number: |
XV. W. 8. |
| Location: | Ovillers is a village about 5 kilometres
north-east of the town of Albert off the D929 road to Bapaume. The
Military Cemetery is approximately 500 metres west of the village on the
D20 road to Aveluy. The Cemetery is signposted in the village. |
| Visiting Information | |
| Historical Information: | On 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the 8th Division attacked Ovillers and the 34th Division La Boisselle. The villages were not captured, but ground was won between them and to the south of La Boisselle. On 4 July, the 19th (Western) Division cleared La Boisselle and on 7 July the 12th (Eastern) and 25th Divisions gained part of Ovillers, the village being cleared by the 48th (South Midland) Division on 17 July. The two villages were lost during the German advance in March 1918, but they were retaken on the following 24 August by the 38th (Welsh) Division. Ovillers Military Cemetery was begun before the capture of Ovillers, as a battle cemetery behind a dressing station. It was used until March 1917, by which time it contained 143 graves, about half the present Plot I. The cemetery was increased after the Armistice when Commonwealth and French graves where brought in, mainly from the battlefields of Pozieres, Ovillers, La Boisselle and Contalmaison. There are now 3,439 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. 2,479 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 24 casualties believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 35 casualties, buried in Mash Valley Cemetery, whose graves were destroyed in later fighting. The cemetery also contains 120 French war graves. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker. |
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