Thiepval Anglo-French Cemetery, Authuille, France
This Commonwealth War Graves cemetery is an unusual cemetery, in so far as it was designed with the aim of creating a mixed cemetery with an equal number of British and French casualties buried here.
The Thiepval Anglo-French Cemetery is located at the western side of the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, a memorial which commemorates over 72,000 British and South African officers and men who were killed up to and including the date of 20th March 1918. The memorial was designed as an Anglo-French memorial in the shape of an arch. The cemetery located in the grounds of the memorial continues this theme.
Almost all of the 300 Commonwealth burials in this cemetery are unidentified. Only 7 are identified. The bodies of those buried in this cemetery were found on the battlefields after the war during the month of December 1931 and between January and March 1932. Some of the remains were brought here from the battlefields north and south of this place as far north as Loos and as far south as Le Quesnel. Most, however, were brought here to be laid to rest after they were discovered on the 1916 Somme battlefields of July to November 1916.
47 of the 300 French casualties buried here are identified. The remaining 253 are unidentified.
Usually French First World War casualties are buried in cemeteries specifically designated as a French national military cemetery.
CWGC Nursery at the Anglo-British Cemetery
At the western boundary of the Anglo-British cemetery there is a nursery for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, where plants are grown for planting in the British and Commonwealth cemeteries in the area.
Location of the Thiepval Anglo-French Cemetery
Thiepval Anglo-French Cemetery is located within the grounds of the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing on the northern part of the 1916 Somme battlefields. It is north of the D929 Albert-Bapaume road, north-west of the village of Pozières.
Thiepval Memorial to the Missing
Cemeteries and Memorials on the Somme Battlefields
Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)
For information and a link to the Commission website see our page at:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.