Foundation and Development of The Cemetery
The cemetery was established on 4 July 1916, employing a section of the old front line trench in Mansel Copse. This ground had originally been held by troops of the 9th Devons before the attack towards the German positions in Mametz on 1 July. Casualties were extremely heavy. After the attack a wooden board was erected close to the mass grave with the legend, 'The Devonshires held this trench, the Devonshires hold it still'. The same inscription is now to be found on the stone memorial tablet unveiled in 1986.
After the war, the architect W H Cowlishaw was commissioned to submit a design for a permanent site.
Read more about this topic: Devonshire Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery
Famous quotes containing the words foundation, development and/or cemetery:
“A full belly to the labourer was, in my opinion, the foundation of public morals and the only source of real public peace.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)
“Every new development for the last three centuries has brought men closer to a state of affairs in which absolutely nothing would be recognized in the whole world as possessing a claim to obedience except the authority of the State. The majority of people in Europe obey nothing else.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“I am a cemetery abhorred by the moon.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)