Yorkshire Regiment War Graves, - Birr Cross Roads Cemetery

The Birr Cross Roads Cemetery
Photo : Chris Weekes (<weebex12@hotmail.com>)

Birr Cross Roads Cemetery is located 3 Km east of Ieper town centre, on the Meenseweg (N8), connecting Ieper to Menen. From Ieper town centre the Meenseweg is located via Torhoutstraat and right onto Basculestraat. Basculestraat ends at a main crossroads, directly over which begins the Meenseweg.

The village and the greater part of the commune of Zillebeke were within the Allied lines until taken by the Germans at the end of April 1918. The village was recovered by the II Corps on 8 September 1918.

Birr Cross Roads was named by the 1st Leinsters from their depot. The cemetery was begun in August 1917 and used as a Dressing Station cemetery until, and after, the German advance in 1918. At the Armistice, it contained nine irregular rows of graves, now part of Plot I, but was greatly enlarged when graves were brought in from the surrounding battlefields and from certain smaller cemeteries.

There are now 833 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 336 of the burials are unidentified, but there are special memorials to nine casualties known or believed to be buried among them.

Amongst the graves is 1 for a soldier of the Yorkshire Regiment (photos and details below).

We are extremely grateful to Chris Weekes for photographing the cemetery and the grave of the Yorkshire Regiment soldier.

For a larger view of the above image, select the thumbnail. Close the window that opens to return to this page.

Lance Corporal Thomas McCann. 18032. 7th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment. Husband of Jane Ann McCann, of 44, Princess St., South Bank, Yorks. Killed 14 December 1915. Aged 32. Born South Bank (Yorks), Enlisted Middlesbrough, Resided South Bank. "ETERNAL REST GRANT HIM O LORD"

Entrance to the Birr Cross Roads Cemetery
Photo : Chris Weekes (<weebex12@hotmail.com>)

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