| Citation:
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| Additional
Information: |
Son of Mrs. Ellen Walker (formerly Ryman), of 16, Winton St.,
Kingsland, Southampton. |
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| Cemetery: |
TYNE COT MEMORIAL, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen,
Belgium |
| Grave Reference/Panel Number: |
Panel 72 to 75 |
| Location: |
The Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing forms the north-eastern
boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which is located 9 kilometres north east of
Ieper town centre, on the Tynecotstraat, a road leading from the
Zonnebeekseweg (N332). The names of those from United Kingdom units are
inscribed on Panels arranged by Regiment under their respective Ranks. The
names of those from New Zealand units are inscribed on panels within the
New Zealand Memorial Apse located at the center of the Memorial.
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| Historical Information: |
The Tyne Cot Memorial is one of four memorials to the missing in
Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. Broadly
speaking, the Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the
northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and
shape throughout the war. The Salient was formed during the First Battle
of Ypres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary
Force succeeded in securing the town before the onset of winter, pushing
the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge. The Second Battle of
Ypres began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the
Allied lines north of Ypres. This was the first time gas had been used by
either side and the violence of the attack forced an Allied withdrawal and
a shortening of the line of defence. There was little more significant
activity on this front until 1917, when in the Third Battle of Ypres an
offensive was mounted by Commonwealth forces to divert German attention
from a weakened French front further south. The initial attempt in June to
dislodge the Germans from the Messines Ridge was a complete success, but
the main assault north-eastward, which began at the end of July, quickly
became a dogged struggle against determined opposition and the rapidly
deteriorating weather. The campaign finally came to a close in November
with the capture of Passchendaele. The German offensive of March 1918 met
with some initial success, but was eventually checked and repulsed in a
combined effort by the Allies in September. The battles of the Ypres
Salient claimed many lives on both sides and it quickly became clear that
the commemoration of members of the Commonwealth forces with no known
grave would have to be divided between several different sites. The site
of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men
who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates
those of all Commonwealth nations except New Zealand who died in the
Salient before 16 August 1917. Those United Kingdom and New Zealand
servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot,
a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in
Belgium until nearly the end of the war. Other New Zealand casualties are
commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines
Ridge British Cemetery. The TYNE COT MEMORIAL now bears the names of
almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial,
designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F V
Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett in July 1927. The memorial
forms the north-eastern boundary of TYNE COT CEMETERY, which was
established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an
advanced dressing station. The original battlefield cemetery of 343 graves
was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when remains were brought in from
the battlefields of Passchendaele and Langemarck, and from a few small
burial grounds. It is now the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the
world in terms of burials. At the suggestion of King George V, who visited
the cemetery in 1922, the Cross of Sacrifice was placed on the original
large pill-box. There are three other pill-boxes in the cemetery. There
are now 11,952 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or
commemorated in Tyne Cot Cemetery. 8,365 of the burials are unidentified
but there are special memorials to more than 80 casualties known or
believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate 20
casualties whose graves were destroyed by shell fire. The cemetery was
designed by Sir Herbert Baker. |