WW1 Revisited
A Great War Journey with Paul Reed
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval
Thiepval is a village on the D151 road about 8 kilometres north of the town of Albert. Mill Road Cemetery (signposted at Thiepval) is about 1kilometre north-west of the village on the north side of the D73 road to Hamel. Access to the cemetery, 500 metres from the road, is by a track (suitable for cars).
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval
Before the 1916 Battle of the Somme, Thiepval was in German hands, garrisoned by the 160th Regiment of Wurtembergers. On 1 July 1916, it was attacked unsuccessfully by the 36th (Ulster) Division and no further attempt on the village was possible until 26 September, when it was captured by the 18th Division. Thiepval remained under Allied occupation until 25 March 1918 when it was lost during the great German offensive, but it was retaken on the following 24 August by the 17th and 38th (Welsh) Divisions. Mill Road Cemetery was made in the spring of 1917 when the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg line allowed the battlefield to be cleared. At the Armistice, it contained 260 burials but was then greatly enlarged when graves were brought in from smaller cemeteries and from the battlefields of Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval.
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval – Winter 2019
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval – Winter 2019
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval – Winter 2019
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval – Winter 2019
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval – Winter 2019
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval – Winter 2019
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval – Winter 2019
Mill Road Cemetery, Thiepval – Winter 2019
There are now 1,304 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. 815 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to three casualties believed to be buried among them and three others buried in Divion Road Cemetery No 1, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.
Number of Burials by Unit
| Duke of Wellington – West Riding Regiment |
92
|
West Yorkshire Regiment |
54
|
|
| Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers |
49
|
Royal Irish Rifles |
43
|
|
| Black Watch Regiment |
19
|
Queen’s – Royal West Surrey Regiment |
19
|
|
| Queen’s Own – Royal West Kent Regiment |
18
|
Royal Sussex Regiment |
18
|
|
| Notts. & Derbyshire Regiment |
16
|
Bedfordshire Regiment |
15
|
|
| Cambridgeshire Regiment |
12
|
Northumberland Fusiliers |
10
|
|
| Cheshire Regiment |
8
|
East Surrey Regiment |
8
|
|
| Buffs – East Kent Regiment |
7
|
Dorsetshire Regiment |
6
|
|
| Gloucestershire Regiment |
6
|
King’s Royal Rifle Corps |
6
|
|
| Leicestershire Regiment |
6
|
Machine Gun Corps |
6
|
|
| Suffolk Regiment |
6
|
Oxford & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry |
5
|
|
| Royal Berkshire Regiment |
5
|
Royal Navy Division – Infantry |
5
|
|
| East Yorkshire Regiment |
4
|
King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry |
4
|
|
| Lancashire Fusiliers |
4
|
Rifle Brigade |
4
|
|
| Durham Light Infantry |
3
|
Hampshire Regiment |
3
|
|
| Loyal North Lancashire Regiment |
3
|
Norfolk Regiment |
3
|
|
| Royal Warwickshire Regiment |
3
|
Welsh Regiment |
3
|
|
| Royal Field Artillery |
2
|
Royal Irish Fusiliers |
2
|
|
| South Lancashire Regiment |
2
|
East Lancashire Regiment |
1
|
|
| Green Howards – Yorkshire Regiment |
1
|
King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment |
1
|
|
| Lincolnshire Regiment |
1
|
Manchester Regiment |
1
|
|
| Monmouthshire Regiment |
1
|
Royal Fusiliers |
1
|
|
| South Staffordshire Regiment |
1
|
Worcestershire Regiment |
1
|
|
| York & Lancaster Regiment |
1
|
|||
| Identified burials |
489
|
|||
| Unidentified burials |
815
|
|||
| Total burials |
1304
|
WW1 Revisited 
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