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Zantvoorde British Cemetery
Zantvoorde British Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient in Belgium on the Western Front. It also contains the remains of a British airman killed during the Second World War. History During the early stages of the First World War, the village of Zandvoorde, now known as Zantvoorde, and surrounding area was the scene of severe fighting. The village itself was defended by the Life Guards. The German forces captured it in late 30 October 1914 and buried the 350-odd British who had been killed there. The area remained under German control until late September 1918. Foundation Zantevoorde British Cemetery was established after the First World War for the remains of soldiers killed in the area, mostly from 1914. It also contained bodies collected from several smaller cemeteries in the area. These included 138 British soldiers, most of whom were killed during late 1914, from the Kruiseeke German C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars. The commission is also responsible for commemorating Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action during the Second World War. The commission was founded by Fabian Ware, Sir Fabian Ware and constituted through Royal Charter in 1917 as the Imperial War Graves Commission. The change to the present name took place in 1960. The commission, as part of its mandate, is responsible for commemorating all Commonwealth war dead individually and equally. To this end, the war dead are commemorated by a name on a headstone, at an identified site of a burial, or on a memorial. War dead are commemorated uniformly and equally, irrespective of military or civil rank, race or creed. The co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Front (World War I)
The Western Front was one of the main theatres of war during the First World War. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The German advance was halted with the Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France, which changed little except during early 1917 and in 1918. Between 1915 and 1917 there were several offensives along this front. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. Entrenchments, machine gun emplacements, barbed wire and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties during attacks and counter-attacks and no significant advances were made. Among the most costly of these offensives were the Battle of Verdun, in 1916, with a combined 700,000 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cemeteries And Memorials In West Flanders
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are burial, buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek language, Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a burial ground and originally applied to the Ancient Rome, Roman catacombs. The term ''graveyard'' is often used interchangeably with cemetery, but a graveyard primarily refers to a burial ground within a churchyard. The intact or cremated remains of people may be interred in a grave, commonly referred to as burial, or in a tomb, an "above-ground grave" (resembling a sarcophagus), a mausoleum, columbarium, niche, or other edifice. In Western world, Western cultures, funeral ceremonies are often observed in cemeteries. These ceremonies or rites of passage differ according to culture, cultural practices and religion, religious beliefs. Modern cemeteries often include crematoria, and some grounds previously used for both, co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemeteries In Belgium
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth or the common wealth – echoed in the modern synonym "public wealth"), it comes from the old meaning of "wealth", which is "well-being", and is itself a loose translation of the Latin res publica (republic). The term literally meant "common well-being". In the 17th century, the definition of "commonwealth" expanded from its original sense of "public welfare" or "commonweal" to mean "a state in which the supreme power is vested in the people; a republic or democratic state". The term evolved to become a title to a number of political entities. Three countries – Australia, the Bahamas, and Dominica – have the official title "Commonwealth", as do four U.S. states and two U.S. territo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis McGuffie
Louis McGuffie VC (15 March 1893 – 4 October 1918) was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. A soldier with The King's Own Scottish Borderers, he was awarded the VC for his actions in late September 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive of the First World War. He was killed in action a few days later. Early life Louis McGuffie was born on 15 March 1893 in Wigtown, a town in Galloway, Scotland, one of four sons born to Edward McGuffie and Catherine . He attended Wigtown Public School and then joined the British Army, enlisting in the 1/5th Battalion of The King's Own Scottish Borderers. He had three brothers who also enlisted. First World War McGuffie served with the 1/5th Battalion in the Gallipoli Campaign as part of the 52nd Division. After the evacuation from Gallipoli, he participated with the battalion in the Sinai and Palestine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Anson Otho Brooke
James Anson Otho Brooke VC (3 February 1884 – 29 October 1914) was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Early life and education Brooke was from a landed gentry family, the eldest of five sons and two daughters of Harry Vesey Brooke, JP, DL, of Fairley, Countesswells, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, who had served as a captain in the 92nd Gordon Highlanders, and Patricia, daughter of James Gregory Moir-Byres, of a landed gentry family of Tonley, Aberdeenshire from which came the architect, antiquary and art dealer James Byres. Brooke's paternal grandfather was Sir Arthur Brinsley Brooke, 2nd Baronet, whose descendant, the 5th Baronet, was created Viscount Brookeborough. Brooke was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Gordon Highlanders 11 Oc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously awarded by countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, most of which have established their own honours systems and no longer recommend British honours. It may be awarded to a person of any military rank in any service and to civilians under military command. No civilian has received the award since 1879. Since the first awards were presented by Queen Victoria in 1857, two-thirds of all awards have been personally presented by the British monarch. The investitures are usually held at Buckingham Palace. The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War. Since then, the medal has been awarded 1,358 times to 1,355 individual recipients. Only 15 medals, of which 11 to members of the Britis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stone Of Remembrance
The Stone of Remembrance is a standardised design for war memorials that was designed in 1917 by the British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens for the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC). It was designed to commemorate the dead of World War I, to be used in IWGC war cemeteries containing 1,000 or more graves, or at memorial sites commemorating more than 1,000 war dead. Hundreds were erected following World War I, and it has since been used in cemeteries containing the Commonwealth dead of World War II as well. It is intended to commemorate those "of all faiths and none", and has been described as one of Lutyens' "most important and powerful works", with a "brooding, sentinel-like presence wherever used". Design The initial thoughts for the design were sent by Lutyens in letters and memoranda in May and August 1917 to Fabian Ware, the founder and head of the Imperial War Graves Commission, before and after the period in which Lutyens and other architects visited the wartime cemeteri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cross Of Sacrifice
The Cross of Sacrifice is a Commonwealth war memorial designed in 1918 by Sir Reginald Blomfield for the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission). It is present in Commonwealth war cemeteries containing 40 or more graves. Its shape is an elongated Latin cross with proportions more typical of the Celtic cross, with the shaft and crossarm octagonal in section. It ranges in height from . A bronze longsword, blade down, is affixed to the front of the cross (and sometimes to the back as well). It is usually mounted on an octagonal base. It may be freestanding or incorporated into other cemetery features. The Cross of Sacrifice is widely praised, widely imitated, and the archetypal British war memorial. It is the most imitated of Commonwealth war memorials, and duplicates and imitations have been used around the world. Development and design of the cross The Imperial War Graves Commission The First World War introduced killing on such a mass scale t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Life Guards (United Kingdom)
The Life Guards (LG) is the senior regiment of the British Army and part of the Household Cavalry, along with the Blues and Royals. History The Life Guards grew from the four troops of Horse Guards (exclusively formed of gentlemen-troopers until the transformation of the last two remaining troops into Regiments of Life Guards in 1788) raised by Charles II around the time of his restoration, plus two troops of Horse Grenadier Guards (rank and file composed of commoners), which were raised some years later.White-Spunner, p. xii * The first troop was originally raised in Bruges in 1658 as ''His Majesty's Own Troop of Horse Guards''. They formed part of the contingent raised by the exiled King Charles II as his contribution to the army of King Philip IV of Spain who were fighting the French and their allies the English Commonwealth under the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell in the Franco-Spanish War and the concurrent Anglo-Spanish War. * The second troop was founded in 1659 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zandvoorde, Zonnebeke
Zandvoorde ( vls, Zanvôorde) is a village in the Belgian province of West Flanders and a part ( deelgemeente) of the municipality of Zonnebeke. Zandvoorde is a rural village, in the rolling landscape of the southern part of the province. History Old listings of the place date back to 1102, as ''Sanfort''. "Sant" refers to sand (in modern Dutch: ''zand''), "fort" refers to Ford (in modern Dutch: ''voorde''), a shallow crossing in a watercourse. The village was completely destroyed during World War I. Among those killed there was the German poet Ernst Stadler, drafted to the German army. Landmarks * The Parish and its church are named after Saint Bartholomew. The current church dates from 1923–1925, after the old church had been destroyed during the First World War. * The Zantvoorde British Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission World War I military cemetery. In the village centre, there is a British war memorial, ''The Household Cavalry Monument''. Trivia * In th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
