Meteren Military Cemetery in Meteren, Nord-Pas-de-Calais

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Get directions Meteren, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France

Coordinates: 50.74380, 2.68847
Cemetery ID:

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Meteren is a village 17.5 kilometres south-west of Ieper (Belgium) and 3 kilometres west of Bailleul on the main road to Cassel. The cemetery is 200 metres north of the Mairie to the rear of the civil cemetery.

Meteren was occupied by German forces early in October 1914, and on October 13 their entrenched positions covering the village were captured by the 10th Brigade of the 4th Division. The village then remained in Allied hands until the German offensive of April 1918. The 33rd Division held it against heavy German attacks on April 13, but it was lost on April 16. The sector was then taken over by French troops for a time, but on July 19 the 9th (Scottish) Division (2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers and South African Composite Battalion) recovered the site of the village after a fortnight's bombardment which completely destroyed the houses.

Meteren Military Cemetery was made in 1919 by the French authorities, who brought in Commonwealth, French and German graves from the neighbouring battlefields and from other smaller communal cemeteries. The cemetery now contains 768 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 180 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to five casualties believed to be buried among them. There are also special memorials to one soldier buried in Meteren Churchyard, and one Indian soldier buried in Mont-des-Cats Indian Cemetery, whose graves were destroyed in later fighting. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.