Royal Irish Rifles Graveyard in Laventie, Nord-Pas-de-Calais

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

Coordinates: 50.61961, 2.79128
Cemetery ID:

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Laventie is a village in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais about 11 kilometres south-west of Armentieres. The Graveyard is 3 kilometres south-east of the village on a minor road from Fleurbaix to Couture.

The Rue-du-Bacquerot runs South-East of the village, towards Fleurbaix; and the position of the road behind the British front line, during the greater part of the war, made it the natural line of a number of small British cemeteries. One of these was begun in November, 1914, and used, at first, particularly by the 1st Royal Irish Rifles. The Royal Irish Rifles Graveyard, was carried on by fighting units until July, 1916; and these original burials are now in Plots I and II. It was increased after the Armistice by the concentration of graves (chiefly of 1914-15 and 1918) from other cemeteries and from the battlefields East of Estaires and Bethune.

There are now over 800 World War I casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, nearly 350 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to three soldiers from the United Kingdom known to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of two soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in Laventie South German Cemetery, whose graves could not be found. The Graveyard covers an area of 2,872 square metres.