Irish House Cemetery, Kemmel, West Flanders. 1 mile E of the village. Begun in June 1917 when men of the 16th (Irish) Division were able to bury the remains of 33 officers and men of the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlands killed on the 14th December 1914 in the 3rd Division’s attack on Wytschaete. Records 102 U.K., 14 Aust., 4 German burials and 1 special memorial.

Graves in Irish House Cemetery of Lieutenant William Findlay Robertson Dobie, Lieutenant James Julian Gordon MacWilliam, Company Quartermaster Sergeant Archibald McKinley and the mass grave of 30 others all of the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders killed in action on the 14th December 1914. The battalion war diary records “At 7 am our artillery bombardment commences. Many of our shells fall short of the German position, some even in rear of our reserve. At 745 am we advanced from the fire trenches and pushed on in extended order in spite of very heavy rifle fire which was immediately opened on us. The sodden nature of the ground and the fact that the men had been standing for several hours in trenches deep in mud rendered a rapid advance impossible. The heavy rifle and machine-gun fire which was opened from the German trenches showed at once that the artillery bombardment had failed in its purpose and that the German trenches were still strongly held. Many casualties occurred as our men left the trenches but the advance was not checked. The attacking companies soon disappeared from view and in default of any means of communication with them it was impossible to tell how they were progressing. Some managed to enter the German positions but were overwhelmed or taken prisoner and at the end of the day the battalion had lost 17 officers and 253 men. The bodies lay out in No Mans Lane from December 1914 until the successful attack on Messines Ridge on the 7th June 1917.

Headstone of the mass grave in Irish House Cemetery of the 30 N.C.Os and Men of the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders killed in action on the 14th December 1914. In the Journal of Private Fraser he records that he was in this sector on the 2nd November 1915 and went out into No Mans Land and was able by documents to identify two of the dead of the Gordons as Robb and Anderson, who would have been No 3/4134 Lance Corporal James Robb and either 3/6575 Acting Corporal Edward Anderson or 3/3369 Private Thomas Anderson. Their bodies may be in this mass grave as may that of S/3389 Private Joseph Morgan.