Ieper, West-Vlaanderen
The Cemetery is located on the Diksmuidseweg road (N369) in the direction of Boezinge. From Ieper station turn left into M.Fochlaan and go to the roundabout, turn right and go to the next roundabout. Here turn left and drive to the next roundabout, where you should turn right into Oude Veurnestraat. Take the second turning on the left, which is the Diksmuidseweg and carry on under the motorway bridge and the cemetery is another 300 metres on the left hand side of the road. N.B. Bard Cottage Cemetery is the first cemetery on the left, the second being Talana Farm Cemetery.
For much of the First World war, the village of Boesinghe (now Boezinge) directly faced the German line across the Yser canal. Bard Cottage was a house a little set back from the line, close to a bridge called Bard's Causeway, and the cemetery was made nearby in a sheltered position under a high bank. Burials were made between June 1915 and October 1918 and they reflect the presence of the 49th (West Riding), the 38th (Welsh) and other infantry divisions in the northern sectors of the Ypres Salient, as well as the advance of artillery to the area in the autumn of 1917. After the Armistice, 46 graves were brought in to Plot VI, Row C, from the immediate area, including 32 from MARENGO FARM CEMETERY (this was located a few hundred metres to the south of Bard Cottage, on the same side of the road. It was used from June 1915 to August 1916). There are now 1,639 Commonwealth casualties of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 39 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate three casualties known to be buried among them. The cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.
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