Spoilbank Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery

Spoilbank is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front.

Spoilbank
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Used for those deceased 1915–1918
EstablishedFebruary 1915
Location50°49′13″N 2°53′57″E[1]
near 
Ieper, West Flanders, Belgium
Designed bySir Edwin Lutyens
Total burials520
Unknowns
125
Burials by nation
Allied Powers:
  • United Kingdom: 426
  • Canada: 16
  • Australia: 67
Burials by war
Statistics source: battlefields1418

The cemetery grounds were assigned to the United Kingdom in perpetuity by the King of Belgium in recognition of the sacrifices made by the British Empire in the defence and liberation of Belgium during the war.

Foundation

Commonwealth troops began using the site as a cemetery in February 1915.[2] The cemetery is named after the bank of spoil left over from the digging of the Ypres-Comines canal,[3] which was strategically important in the relatively flat Flemish countryside.

The cemetery is also referred to as Gordon Terrace Cemetery and Chester Farm Lower Cemetery.[4]

There are special markers for eleven soldiers (ten British and one Australian) who are known or believed to be buried in the cemetery but whose actual plot was lost or destroyed.[1] These stones usually have the Rudyard Kipling-derived footnote "Their glory shall not be blotted out".

The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens upon enlargement after the war when graves were concentrated from the nearby battlefields.

Notable graves

The cemetery has the graves of two brothers, George and John Keating, who were both killed on 17 February 1915. They are buried next to each other.[4]

The cemetery also has the grave of Private R H Reeves, who was killed on 8 October 1915 by a grenade. He was 15 years old.[5]

References
  1. wo1.be Archived 2005-01-18 at the Wayback Machine, undated, accessed 17 February 2006
  2. Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry, undated, accessed 17 February 2007
  3. battlefields1418, undated, accessed 17 February 2007
  4. Duffy, Michael firstworldwar.com, 1 September 2002, accessed 17 February 2007
  5. wo1.be Archived 2007-02-28 at the Wayback Machine, undated, accessed 17 February 2007
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