Chester Farm Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery

Chester Farm is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front.

Chester Farm
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Used for those deceased 1915–1917
EstablishedMarch 1915
Location50°49′18″N 2°54′04″E[1]
near 
Ieper, West Flanders, Belgium
Designed bySir Edwin Lutyens
Total burials424
Unknowns
9
Burials by nation
Burials by war
Statistics source: wo1.be and firstworldwar.com

The cemetery grounds were assigned to the United Kingdom in perpetuity by the King of Belgium in recognition of the sacrifices made by the British Empire in the defence and liberation of Belgium during the war.

Gravestones at the rear of the cemetery, showing planting done by the CWGC.

Foundation

Commonwealth troops began using the site as a cemetery in March 1915.[2] The cemetery is named after a nearby farm,[3] which was itself probably named by the 2nd Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment in 1915.[4]

The dead are mostly grouped by battalion.[5]

There are cenotaphs for six soldiers (five British and one Canadian) who are known or believed to be buried in the cemetery but whose actual plot was lost or destroyed.[5] These stones usually have the Rudyard Kipling-derived footnote "Their glory shall not be blotted out".

Notable graves

The painter Ernest Stafford Carlos is buried here.[6][7]

References
  1. wo1.be Archived November 11, 2005, at the Wayback Machine, undated, accessed 17 February 2006
  2. Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry, undated, accessed 17 February 2007
  3. Duffy, Michael firstworldwar.com, 1 September 2002, accessed 17 February 2007
  4. Reed, Paul (1999). Walking the Salient. Leo Cooper. ISBN 978-0850526172. (Chapter 5)
  5. wo1.be Archived November 11, 2005, at the Wayback Machine, undated, accessed 17 February 2007
  6. wo1.be Archived February 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, undated, accessed 17 February 2006
  7. CWGC record
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