Page 43 - Nov_2018
P. 43
More Information regarding our cover this month
The cemetery was begun in October 1917 by the 7th Division. Originally containing 76 graves, the cemetery
was expanded by the concentration of graves from the surrounding battlefields and from nearby smaller
cemeteries.
The cemetery grounds were assigned to the United Kingdom in perpetuity by the King of the Belgians in
recognition of the sacrifices made by the British Empire in the defence and liberation of Belgium during the
war.
Beneath the cemetery grounds opposite the "Hooge Crater Museum" are the remains of a deep dugout
constructed by 177th Tunnelling Company beneath the Menin Road in the centre of Hooge, occupying the
space in between 175th TC's July 1915 mine crater and the stables of the destroyed Château de Hooge.
The current cemetery layout was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and has an unusual feature in the stone-faced
circular depression at the entrance that evokes the nearby craters at Hooge, Bellewaerde Ridge and Railway
Wood, many of which are now lost. The original Hooge Crater, created nearby on 19 July 1915 by the mine
fired by 175th Tunnelling Company, was filled in later in the war as the repository of hundreds of bodies and
untenable.
The water filled crater visible near the Bellewaarde Hotel today is the result of Baron de Wynck, who
landscaped three German mine craters blown in June 1916 as part of their offensive against the Canadians.
Ralf and his family attended the cemetery while on a tour of France and Belgium.
