Messines Ridge British Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Messines Ridge British Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Messines Ridge British Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, stands on ground that belonged to the 'Institution Royale' (the Cross of Sacrifice is on the site of the Institution's windmill), was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefield around Messines. There are now 1,534 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. 957 of the burials are unidentified, but special memorials commemorate a number of casualties known or believed to be buried among them, or who were buried in other cemeteries where their graves were destroyed by shell fire. Within the cemetery stands the MESSINES RIDGE (NEW ZEALAND) MEMORIAL which commemorates over 800 soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force who died in or near Messines in 1917 and 1918 and who have no known grave. This is one of seven memorials in France and Belgium to those New Zealand soldiers who died on the Western Front and whose graves are not known. The memorials are all in cemeteries chosen as appropriate to the fighting in which the men died.

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  • Profile picture for Frank Herbert Lemmon

    Born 1883

    Died 1918

    Australian Imperial Force 7348 Private Australian Infantry 11th Battalion

  • Profile picture for John Vivian Gordon

    Born 1893

    Died 1917

    Australian Imperial Force 1039 Private 11th Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery