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Essex Farm Cemetery, Boesinghe, W Flanders with (on the Yser Canal bank) memorial column to the 49th (West Riding) Division. 1 mile N of Ypres and between Ypres and Boesinghe, between road and canal bank was Essex Farm . Used as a dressing station. Records 1088 UK., 9 Can., 83 unknown 1 German burials and 19 special memorials.
Essex Farm Cemetery
Grave in Essex Farm Cemetery of No 17114 Private Thomas Barratt VC of 7th Battalion the South Staffordshire Regiment. The Battalion part of 33rd Infantry Brigade landed at Gallipoli 7th August 1915 and then July 1916 France. Killed in action 27 July 1917. Extract from the London Gazette records “For most conspicuous bravery when as a Scout to a patrol he worked his way to the enemy line with the greatest gallantry and determination, in spite of continuous fire from hostile snipers at close range. These snipers he stalked and killed. Later his patrol was similarly held up, and again he disposed of the snipers. When during the subsequent withdrawal of the patrol it was observed that a party of the enemy were endeavouring to outflank them, Private Barratt at once volunteered to cover the retirement and this he succeeded in accomplishing. His accurate shooting caused many casualties to the enemy and prevented their advance. Throughout the enterprise he was under heavy machine-gun fire and rifle fire, and his splendid example of coolness and daring was beyond all praise. After safely regaining our lines this very gallant soldier was killed by a shell.” Born and enlisted in Bilston in Staffordshire. Son of James and Sarah Ann Barratt.
Grave in Essex Farm Cemetery of Private Valentine Joe Strudwick 8th Battalion the Rifle Brigade killed in action on 14th January 1916 aged 15 years. Battalion to France May 1915 as part of 41st Infantry Brigade. Headstone bears inscription “Not gone from memory Or from Love.” Born Dorking Surrey, enlisted Lambeth whilst residing in Croydon son of Louisa Strudwick of 70 Orchard Road Dorking, one of the youngest battle casualties of the war.
Waterlogged British dressing stations in old Yser Canal Bank, Brielen Bridge, Essex Farm.
Essex Farm Bunker Dressing Station. Named after a small cottage when the 4th Division took over this sector in mid-1915 an Advanced Dressing Station was established by their RAMC units, and as this division included the 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment the site was probably named after them. The ADS was dug into the canal bank and was then a primitive timber and elephant iron affair. During the Second Battle of Ypres it was manned by officers and men from the Canadian Army Medical Corps of 1st (Canadian) Division, who treated many gas cases. One of the officers was Captain John McCrae who wrote “In Flanders Fields.” He was subsequently promoted and by 1918 was a Lieutenant-Colonel stationed at a Base Hospital near Boulogne. Having worn himself out he died of pneumonia in January of that year and is buried in Wimereux Communal Cemetery 3 miles N of Boulogne. The concrete bunker visible today was built on the site of the original ADS used in 1915. Dating from 1916 the ADS was made permanent for the forthcoming Third Ypres offensive although the nearby Duhallow became the main ADS for this sector at that time.
Albertina Memorial to the poet John McCrae outside Essex Farm Cemetery. Captain John McCrae Canadian Medical Officer wrote “In Flanders Fields” when he served in what was then a simple earthen dugout dressing station in the spring of 1915. On 24th April 1915 Captain McCrae wrote home with one of the most vivid and moving accounts of the Second Battle of Ypres. He saw “asphyxiated French soldiers” and streams of civilian refugees – “the very picture of debacle”. Afterwards he wrote “For 36 hours we had not an infantryman between us and the Germans and this gap was 1,200 to 1,500 yards wide. God knows why the Germans did not put a big force in to eat us up. We really expected to die.” By 25th April the Canadians had lost 6,000 of their strength of 10,000. The shelling was unremitting and the small cemetery beside the dressing station grew daily. A brother officer recorded “A couple of hundred yards away, there was the headquarters of an infantry regiment and on numerous occasions during the sixteen day battle, we saw how they crept out to to bury their dead during lulls in the fighting. So the rows of crosses increased day after day, until in no time at all it had become quite a sizeable cemetery. It was not uncommon early in the morning to hear the larks singing in the brief silences between the bursts of the shells and the returning salvos of our own nearby guns.” On 2nd May 1915 one of Captain McCraes friends Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was killed. Captain McCrae recorded “Heavy gunfire again this morning. Lieut Helmer was killed and Lieut Hague severely wounded at the guns. He was our Mess Secretary and a very nice boy – graduate of RMC and McGill. His diary’s last words were ‘It has quieted a little and I shall try to get a good sleep.’ His girls’ picture had a hole right through it – and we buried it with him. I said the Committal service over him, as well as I could from memory. A soldier’s death! The French lines are very uneasy, and we are correspondingly anxious. Infantry fire very heavy and we fired incessantly, keeping on into the night. Despite the heavy fire I got asleep at 12 till daylight.” Another officer Captain Cosgrave remembered Helmer’s death: “Shortly after eight o’clock on the morning of May 2 Lieut Helmer was killed. We had just met, the first time in ten days of the battle. A shell fell in front of him and he was instantly killed. I was knocked down. Lieut Owen Hague had his leg badly torn and died that night.” He also described the burial “Alex Helmer was a very close friend of Captain McCrae and at 11 on the morning of the 2nd May 1915 about 100 yards from the Ypres bridges the Captain buried him himself, reading aloud the Anglican service from memory, myself and other officers were present. It was during the battle and there was no padre at hand to conduct the service. John McCrae was deeply affected by Lieut Helmer’s death …While watching the grave from the dugout where he sat John McCrae admired the vivid red poppies that were beginning to bloom among the graves, larks were flying over the field singing as they circled about, the wind was blowing quietly and the poppies were blowing in the breeze. It was a sad – but magnificent sight. Captain McCrae commented on the surroundings out in the battlefield and then went out and wrote ‘In Flanders Fields’, to relieve his feelings as he was deeply depressed over Helmer’s death.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
The poem was published in Punch on 6th December 1915 anonymously.
Lieutenant Helmer’s grave was subsequently lost through shellfire and he is commemorated on Panel 10, Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.
Captain McCrae was manning the dressing station with other officers and men from the Canadian Army Medical Corps of 1st (Canadian) Division who treated many gas cases. He was later promoted and by 1918 was a Lieutenant-Colonel at a Base Hospital near Boulogne. Having worn himself out he died of pneumonia in January 1918 and is buried in Wimereux Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais, 3 miles N of Boulogne.
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