Romeries Communal Cemetery Extension

Nord

Location Information:

Romeries is a village approximately 16 kilometres south of Valenciennes and 4 kilometres north-east of Solemes. The Communal Cemetery is on the west side of the village on the north side of the road to Solemes.

Historical Information:

Part of the II Corps retired through this area during the Retreat from Mons in August 1914, and in October 1918, Commonwealth forces returned during the Advance to Victory.

Briastre was captured on 10 October 1918, Belle Vue Farm on 20 October, Romeries itself and Beaudignies on 23 October and Englefontaine on 26 October. The Battle of the Sambre, the last great action of the war, carried the front forward into Belgium and ended with the Armistice. Romeries Communal Cemetery Extension is one of the burial grounds of those who died between these dates.

The original extension is Plot I, made by the 3rd and New Zealand Divisions, and containing 128 graves. The remaining plots were made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from small cemeteries and isolated positions on the battlefield, including (in Plot X) a few graves of 25 August 1914.

Of the larger sites concentrated here:-

BRIASTRE-SOLESMES ROAD MILITARY CEMETERY, BRIASTRE (Nord), was used by the 37th Division and the 1st Wellington Regiment (New Zealand) from the 11th to the 16th October, 1918. It contained the graves of 25 soldiers from the United Kingdom (12 of the 4th Middlesex) and 11 from New Zealand. It was about half a mile South-East of Briastre, across the Selle.

BRIASTRE CHURCHYARD contained the grave of one New Zealand soldier.

BELLE VUE FARM CEMETERY, BRIASTRE, was 200 yards South of the Farm, which was almost immediately East of Briastre, across the Selle. It contained the graves of 16 soldiers of the 4th Middlesex who fell on the 10th October.

BEAUDIGNIES CHURCHYARD (Nord) contained the graves of five New Zealand soldiers who fell on the 4th November.

ENGLEFONTAINE GERMAN CEMETERY contained the graves of three soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell on the 26th and 27th October.

GRAND GAY FARM CEMETERY, LOUVIGNIES-QUESNOY (Nord), was nearly a mile South of Louvignies. There were buried in it 37 soldiers from the United Kingdom, 24 of whom belonged to the 9th Duke of Wellington's.

SALESCHES CHURCHYARD (Nord) contained the graves of three soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell on the 25th and 29th October.

ST. PYTHON COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION was made by the 2nd Division. It contained the graves of 23 soldiers from the United Kingdom, two from New Zealand, and one from Canada, who fell between the 27th October and the 8th November.

There are now 832 burials and commemorations of the First World War in the extension. 129 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 15 casualties believed to be buried among them.

The extension was designed by Charles Holden.