First DCLI Cemetery The Bluff in Zillebeke, West Flanders

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Get directions Zillebeke, West Flanders, Belgium

Coordinates: 50.82091, 2.91303
Cemetery ID:

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About these numbers These percentages indicate the number of Find a Grave memorials that have a grave photo or GPS coordinates. We don't know the total number of burials in a cemetery, so we cannot calculate a percentage of those with memorials, photos or GPS coordinates.

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First DCLI Cemetery is located 4 km south east of Ieper town centre, on the Verbrandemolenstraat a road leading from the Komenseweg, connecting Ieper to Komen (N336). From Ieper town centre the Komenseweg is located via the Rijselsestraat, through the Rijselpoort (Lille Gate) and crossing the Ieper ring road, towards Armentieres and Lille. The road name then changes to Rijselseweg. 1 km along the Rijselseweg lies the left hand turning onto Komenseweg. 2.5 km along the Komenseweg lies the right hand turning onto the Vaartstraat. 900 metres along the Vaartstraat lies the left hand turning onto the Verbrandemolenstraat. 400 metres along the Verbrandemolenstraat a short distance from the road is the cemetery. Historical Information: The commune of Zillebeke contains many Commonwealth cemeteries as the front line trenches ran through it during the greater part of the First World War. The trenches of the 14th (Light) Division on the narrow ridge known as the Bluff were captured by the Germans in February 1916, and retaken by the 3rd Division on 2 March. In the following July the Germans blew a mine under it, but failed to capture the ground. It was given up in the spring of 1918, but regained by the 14th Division on 28 September. The First D.C.L.I. Cemetery dates from a period earlier than the fighting of 1916. It contains the graves of officers and men of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (one of whom had just obtained a commission in another Regiment) and other soldiers, all of whom died in April-July 1915. Row D was added after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefield. The cemetery now contains 76 First World War burials, 13 of them unidentified. The cemetery was designed by J R Truelove.