Zillebeke Churchyard Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery forms part of the village churchyard located around the Catholic parish church of

Zillebeke Zillebeke (also known as Zellebeck) is a village in the Flemish province of West Flanders in Belgium. It is a former municipality which is now part of Ypres. History On 3 March 1914 the then municipality was granted the arms of the last Lords o ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. A section of the parish churchyard used by the inhabitants of Zillebeke is maintained as a

war cemetery A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. Definition The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to be ...

by the

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 mil ...

as a burial ground for the dead of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

near

Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality co ...

(''Ieper'') on the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

. The grounds of the

were assigned to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in perpetuity by King

Albert I of Belgium Albert I (8 April 1875 – 17 February 1934) was King of the Belgians from 23 December 1909 until his death in 1934. Born in Brussels as the fifth child and second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-S ...

in recognition of the sacrifices made by the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

in the defence and liberation of

during the war. Within Zillebeke Churchyard CWGC Cemetery there is a section with

war graves War is an intense armed conflict between State (polity), states, governments, Society, societies, or paramilitary groups such as Mercenary, mercenaries, Insurgency, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violenc ...

of soldiers from aristocratic backgrounds; this plot is called ''The Aristocrat's Cemetery''.

Foundation

In the early days of the war, whilst the

front line A front line (alternatively front-line or frontline) in military terminology is the position(s) closest to the area of conflict of an armed force's personnel and equipment, usually referring to land forces. When a front (an intentional or uninte ...

was still mobile, specific cemeteries for soldiers were comparatively rare and the dead were often buried in local churchyards or municipal burial grounds near where they were killed.

was on the front line for much of the war and its churchyard was used for the war dead. These 1914 burials of British and Canadian soldiers reflect the mobility of the front line as they are largely of officers, and reflect the officer class of that point in the war as they were

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...

or the sons of the wealthy and the well-connected. As such, the cemetery deviates from almost every other Commission burial ground by having two private memorials, breaking the "equality in death" principle the commission was founded under and not complying with Sir

Frederic Kenyon Sir Frederic George Kenyon (15 January 1863 – 23 August 1952) was a British palaeographer and biblical and classical scholar. He held a series of posts at the British Museum from 1889 to 1931. He was also the president of the British Academy fr ...

's report, still otherwise followed to this day, that Commission cemeteries "were designed to avoid class distinctions that would conflict with the feeling of 'brotherhood' which had developed between all ranks serving at the Front". The private memorials are a headstone dedicated to Lieutenant John Henry Gordon Lee-Steere and the tomb of Second Lieutenant Baron Alexis George de Gunzburg. Amongst the nobility or well-connected buried in the cemetery are Lieutenant The 5th Baron Congleton, Major

Lord Bernard Gordon-Lennox Major Lord Bernard Charles Gordon-Lennox (1 May 1878 – 10 November 1914), was a British Army officer. Gordon-Lennox was the third son of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond, by his first wife Amy Mary, daughter of Percy Ricardo, of Bra ...

(son of 7th Duke of Richmond) and the Honourable

William Reginald Wyndham William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...

(son of the 2nd Baron Leconfield). The Commonwealth War Graves Commission part of the cemetery was designed by W H Cowlishaw.

References

External links

* * * {{CWGC cemeteries in Ypres municipality Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Belgium