Ste. Marie Cemetery, Le Havre

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Ste. Marie Cemetery
Cemetery Ste. Marie.jpg
Country: France
Location: Seine-Maritime
Coordinates: 49°30′16.5″N 0°7′34″E / 49.504583, 0.12611
Type: Public
Owned by: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Number of gravesites: 1,987
Website: Ste. Marie Cemetery

The Ste. Marie Cemetery is a cemetery in the Seine-Maritime region of France containing graves from both the Great War and the Second World War.

History

During the First World War, Le Havre was one of the ports at which the British Expeditionary Force disembarked in August 1914. Except for a short interval during the German advance in 1914, it remained No.1 Base throughout the war and by the end of May 1917, it contained three general and two stationary hospitals, and four convalescent depots.

The first Commonwealth burials took place in Division 14 of Ste Marie Cemetery in mid August 1914. Burials in Divisions 19, 3, 62 and 64 followed successively.

A memorial in Plot 62 marks the graves of 24 casualties from the hospital ship 'Salta' and her patrol boat, sunk by a mine on 10 April 1917. The memorial also commemorates by name the soldiers, nurses and merchant seamen lost from the 'Salta' whose bodies were not recovered, and those lost in the sinking of the hospital ship 'Galeka' (mined on 28 October 1916) and the transport ship 'Normandy' (torpedoed on 25 January 1918), whose graves are not known.

There are now 1,690 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in this cemetery, 8 of which are unidentified.

During the Second World War, Le Havre was one of the evacuation ports for the British Expeditionary force in 1940 and towards the end of the war it was used as a supply and reinforcement base.

There are now 364 burials of the Second World War here,(59 of them unidentified) in Divisions 64 and 67 of the cemetery.[1]

Location

Ste. Marie Cemetery is one of the town cemeteries, but it is actually situated in the commune of Graville-St. Honorine, overlooking Le Havre from the north. The main entrance to the cemetery is on the Rue du 329ème Régiment d'Infanterie. There is another entrance on the west side of the cemetery which is closest to the main war graves plots and this can be accessed via the Rue Eugène Landoas.

"We Rest Here"

The following Signals related person is buried here.

Headstone Service Number Rank and Name Grave Location
Johnston, Thomas Alexander grave marker.jpg
5690 Cpl T.A. Johnston Div. 64. VIII. L. 6.

See also

References

  1. CWGC Ste. Marie Cemetery webpage