Richebourg-l'Avoué is a village and former

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the Pas-de-Calais region of France. It was merged with Richebourg-Saint-Vaast to form the

of Richebourg on 21 February 1971. The village was the site of the Battle of the Boar's Head on 30 June 1916, by the 11th, 12th and 13th (Southdowns) Battalions of the

Royal Sussex Regiment The Royal Sussex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was in existence from 1881 to 1966. The regiment was formed in 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment of Foot a ...

, part of the 116th Southdowns Brigade of the 39th Division. In fewer than five hours the three Southdowns Battalions of the Royal Sussex lost and killed and were wounded or taken prisoner. In the regimental history it is known as "The Day Sussex Died". Following the 1916 publication, the poet

Edmund Blunden Edmund Charles Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was a ...

recalled reading Masefield's ''Good Friday'' in a frontline dugout in Richebourg-l'Avoué just as their sentry was killed by a sniper.Edmund Blunden,

Undertones of War ''Undertones of War'' is a 1928 memoir of the First World War, written by English poet Edmund Blunden. As with two other famous war memoirs-— Siegfried Sassoon's '' Sherston trilogy'', and Robert Graves' ''Good-Bye to All That''--''Undertones' ...

, (Harmondsworth (Penguin Modern Classics edn.), 1982 (1928, 1937)), p. 75, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=29801, accessed: 23 February 2022

War memorial

The Le Touret

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 m ...

cemetery and memorial is sited here. It was begun in November 1914 by the

Indian Corps The I Indian Corps was an army corps of the British Indian Army in the World War I. It was formed at the outbreak of war under the title Indian Corps from troops sent to the Western Front. The British Indian Army did not have a pre-war corps stru ...

(in particular by the 2nd Leicesters), remaining in use until the end of the war (barring a time in German hands from April–August 1918); the

Le Touret Memorial The Le Touret Memorial is a World War I memorial, located near the former commune of Richebourg-l'Avoué, in the Pas-de-Calais region of France. The memorial lists 13,389 names of British and Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave who were kill ...

is part of the cemetery. The Rue-des-Berceaux CWGC Cemetery is also sited here and includes the burial site of New Zealand tennis player Tony Wilding.

Footnotes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Richebourg-l'Avoue Former communes of Pas-de-Calais Conflicts in 1916 1916 in France