Artillery Wood Cemetery, Boesinghe, West Flanders. 7 miles from Ypres. N of wood E of Yser Canal. The Guards Division captured Artillery Wood during Battle of Pilkem Ridge July 31st 1917. Records 1,243 UK., 30 Can., 10 Newfld., 5 Aust., 2 NZ., 1 S.A., 4 unknown burials and 12 special memorials.

Grave in Artillery Wood Cemetery of No 16138 Lance Corporal Francis Edward Ledwidge 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers killed in action 31st July 1917 aged 29 years. The Third Battle of Ypres began on the 31 July 1917. The task was to advance through a country which was mostly a slough of foul mud against positions of great strength, desperately held since they were vital to the enemy. All the British movements had to be along roads, at that stage along constructed “duck board” wooden tracks. To leave the road or track was to be in imminent danger of being smothered in mud and many lives were lost in this way; every road and track was swept by the artillery and machine-gun fire of the enemy. The Battalion was part of 87th Brigade 29th Division which was not involved in the actual attacks on the commencement of the Battle on 31st July but Francis Ledwidge was apparently killed by shell-fire when laying duck-boards on Pilkem Ridge. Born 19 August 1887 Slane, Co. Meath, enlisted Navan. Son of Patrick and Anne Ledwidge of Clane Co Meath. A noted Poet, the majority of his poetry was about Ireland and the fairies. His patron was Lord Dunsany who believed he would have surpassed Robert Burns if he had lived. In Solilquoys he wrote “And now I’m drinking wine in France, The helpless child of circumstance, Tomorrow will be loud with war, How will I be accounted for? It is too late now to retrieve A fallen dream, too late to grieve A name unmade, but not too late To thank the gods for what is great; A keen-edged sword, a soldier’s heart, Is greater than a poet’s art. And greater than a poet’s fame A little grave that has no name.” The Battalion had landed in Gallipoli on the 24th April 1915, took part in the campaign there arriving in Marseilles in France on the 18th March 1916. However Francis Ledwidge went from Gallipoli to Salonika, was in hospital in Egypt before going to France so it is likely that he served first with either the 5th or 6th Service Battalions before being transferred to the First Battalion.

Grave in Artillery Wood Cemetery of No61117 Private Ellis Humphrey Evans 15th Battalion (the London Welsh) Royal Welsh Fusiliers killed in action 31st July 1917 age 30 years. The Battalion was part of 114 Brigade itself part of 38th Division and at the opening of the 3rd Battle of Ypres the Division attacked at 0350 on the 31st July 1917 with two Brigades with one in support. The assembly positions were to the east of the Yser canal and the objectives were the village of Pilkem, the Pilkem Ridge and then the Steenbeck. The Battalion came under heavy artillery fire and lost the British barrage but struggled on to the Iron Cross Ridge but there was strong resistance at Rudolphe Farm and blockhouses near Iron Cross which were heavily defended. The Battalion lost every officer and Private Evans was wounded and taken back to the Aid Post at Hagebos crossroads where he died. Welsh was his first language but his last words were “I am very happy.” Spoken in English. Headstone bears inscription “Y Prifardd Hedd Wyn.” Born 13th January 1887, son of Evan and Mary Evans of Trawsfynydd, Merioneth. One of the war poets, who wrote poetry under the name of ‘Hedd Wyn.’ Before joining the Battalion in January 1917 he had won six bardic chairs and had been writing a long, bardic poem called Yr Awr (‘The Hero”) since 1916 and was still working on it when he arrived in France. He posted it to enter the National Eisteddfod in Birkenhead under the pseudonym Fleur de Lys. This was the name called as the winner of the Bardic Chair at the Eisteddfod on the 6th September 1917