P Moran, Air Mechanic First Class, Royal Navy, HMS Heron, 18/4/1943, aged 29:-

Corporal J McDonnack, RAF, Auxiliary Air Force, 1/5/1941:-

Gunner A Keegan, Royal Artillery, 11/12/1939, aged 30:-

Private J Lydon, Durham Light Infantry, 2/12/1915:-

Private T McKeown, Northumberland Fusiliers, 1/11/1918, aged 34:-

Sergeant J G Forrest, Flight Engineer, RAF, 14/1/1945, aged 19:-

Bruno Joseph Turcotte, Petty Officer Royal Canadian Navy, HMCS Provider, 16/6/1964, aged 36:-

As I mentioned before Hebburn Cemetery contains 41 War Graves, from both World Wars.

Sapper T C Brown, Royal Engineers, 7/4/1916:-

Serjeant W W Norrie, Corps of Military Police, 27/2/1945, aged 42:-

Lance Corporal W G Nicholson, Royal Engineers, 4/3/1941, aged 30:-

Private J Adair, Durham Light Infantry, 29/9/1942, aged 32:-

Able Seaman A Cottrell, Royal Navy, HMS “President III”, 14/5/1942:-

Private O Ward, The Border Rgiment, 2/12/1940, aged 25:-

J Wilson, Stoker, Petty Officer, Royal Navy, HMS Zephyr, 31/12/1944, aged 27:-

Hebburn, in Tyne and Wear, is a kind of ancestral home for me. My maternal grandmother was brought up there before her parents moved to Glasgow where she met my grandfather.

It’s a fairly typical north of England post-industrial town. I didn’t spot any Art Deco there, though.

We did pass a cemetery with the Commonwealth War Graves sign. This was Hebburn Cemetery. At the centre of the cemetery is a chapel in front of which lies a war memorial:-

The war memorial is a Cross of Sacrifice on an octagonal plinth. Inscribed round the base of the upper plinth, “Their name liveth for evermore.”

To the left of the memorial as you approach it up the drive is a sculpture named “Poppies in steel,” with a sign saying, “You have done your duty, to honour you is ours” – Friends of Hebburn Cemetery, September 2019.

A war memorial bench is nearby:-

I gather Hebburn’s main War Memorial is elsewhere. Looking at the aerial view in the link I see it’s actually close to the cemetery. Maybe next time we’re down there.

Birr Cross Roads Cemetery lies on the Menin Road just east of Ypres/Ieper. One of the many Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries surrounding the city.

The cemetery contains 834 burials, 330 of whom are unidentified casualties. There are 504 identified casualties; from the United Kingdom (375,) Australia (115,) New Zealand (9,) Canada (4) and one Belgian.

From Menin Road. Cross of Sacrifice to right of centre, Stone of Remembrance to left of gates:-

Soldiers of the Great War:-

The Belgian grave is of an interpreter to the British Army. It is inscribed, “A la Memoire de De Wattine Camille, L E, Sergent de l’Armee Belge, interprete a l’Armee Britannique. Mort pour la Belgique, la 29 Septembre 1918.” (In memory of De Wattine Camille, L E, Sergeant, Belgian Army, interpreter to the British Army. Died for Belgium, 29/9/1918):-

The nine New Zealanders there include five soldiers from the Maori Battalion.

Corporal W M Karena, New Zealand Maori Battalion, 30/11/1917 and Private H Kanaru, New Zealand Maori Battalion, 30/11/1917:-

Private H R Kereama, New Zealand Maori Battalion, 7/12/1917, aged 26 and Private M Hapuku, New Zealand Maori Battalion, 30/11/1917:-

Private H M Power, New Zealand Maori Battalion, 7/12/1917, aged 22:-

On our way out of Chester back to Gladstone’s Library at Hawarden we passed a cemetery and spotted the Commonwealth War Graves sign. On turning down the street (Overleigh Road) looking for somewhere to park we discovered there are two cemeteries, one either side of the road. Overleigh ‘Old’ Cemetery was the first we entered. I found 11 war graves there. Someone had placed knitted “poppy” wreaths on the graves.

Private J McElmeel, Royal Liverpool Regiment, 24/2/1919, aged 19:-

Private J Garvey, Cheshire Regiment, 2/7/1917:-

Private J Butler, Labour Corps, 20/3/19??:-

Private R Lord, Cheshire Regiment, 12/5/1915:-

Private J Kirby, Royal Welch Fusiliers, 26/9/1916, aged 23:-

Lance Corporal J Donnelly, Military Police Corps, 27/3/1917:-

Private M Leak, Cheshire Regiment, 4/6/1920, aged 38:-

Private J H Baker, Royal Army Service Corps, 9/9/1915, age 29:-

Private J H Roach, Machine Gun Corps, (Infantry,) 20/1/1919, aged 29:-

Serjeant J Stretch, Machine Gun Corps, (Infantry,) 16/5/1918, aged 38:-

Staff Serjeant Major W Steele, Army Pay Corps, 20/7/1918:-

Annan Cemetery is on a minor road leading north off the A 75 just to the west of the town. It contains a fair number of Commonwealth War Graves.

There is a line of 22 quite near the entrance. One of these is for a Czechoslovakian airman:-

I photographed these in blocks hoping to make out the individaul names but in most cases the lighting makes that difficult. They all seem to be Second World War graves, RAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force or Royal Australian Air Force:-

To the right here is the grave of that Czechoslovakian, Karel Dosva, RAF, 20/10/1908-21/1?/1943.

Innerleithen’s cemetery is on the left hand side of the road as you go into the town from the direction of Traquair. I found twelve Commonwealth War Graves, eight for World War 2, four for the Great War.

J MCI Melrose, Royal Signals, 21/3/1944, aged 21:-

W Craig, Ordinary Seaman, RN, HMS Ganges, 14/8/1945, aged 18:-

Private J Strachan, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 13/6/1945, aged 18:-

Corporal G K Brunton, The Royal Scots, 18/2/1944, aged 32:-

Lance Corporal R T Smith, The Royal Scots, 13/6/1941, aged 23:-

Sergeant G Russell, RAF, 6/5/1942, aged 32:-

Trooper R Crosbie, 1st Lothians & Border Yeomanry, Royal Armoured Corps, 28/12/1940, aged 21:-

Lieutenant R Campbell, 1st Peebles-shire Home Guard, 20/8/1944, aged 55. It’s unusual to see a War Grave for someone who was in the Home Guard:-

Private J Aitchison, 14th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, 15/10/1916, aged 40:-

Sergeant W J Bell, Royal Scots, 27/1/1917, aged 37. (And his wife, Isobel Hislop, died 22/5/1981, aged 87. 64 years after her husband.) I note that, as is the Scottish custom, Sergeant Bell’s wife reverted to her maiden name in death:-

Sapper G Blake, Royal Engineeers, 2/5/1918, aged 46:-

Lance Serjeant Edward Oliver, Royal Scots, 24/2/1916, aged 23:-

In St Serf’s churchyard, Dunning (see previous post,) there are two Commonwealth War Graves

Lance Corporal W L Crowe, 5th Battalion, Australian Infantry, 6/7/1918, aged 24:-

Corporal A G Small, Army Catering Corps, 15/12/1944, aged 22:-

In the churchyard another gravestone commemorates William Duncan, 1st Scots Guards, died of wounds in France, 13/12/1916 aged 32:-

A plaque in St Serf’s itself remembers Major Norman Chetwynd Rollo, KOSB, died of wounds in Belgium, September, 1944, aged 28:-

A burn runs through the village and under the main road. It forms a backstop to the foot of this garden:-

Forteviot is a village in Strathearn, Perthshire.

Its churchyard contains the graves of three brothers, side by side.

Private J Bonthrone, the Black Watch, 25/3/1920, aged 23.
Guardsman A Bonthrone, Scots Guards, 12/8/1915, aged 23.
Corporal D Bonthrone, the Black Watch, 29/2/1920, aged 33.

Alexander, David and John Bonthrone are also commemorated on the family gravestone close by:-

There is one World War 2 grave, that of Private C Walker, the Black Watch, 29/12/1944, aged 26:-

I have posted about Newburgh before, but I hadn’t visited its cemetery until in August 2018 I found four graves each with a possible war link.

Regulating Petty Officer A S Anderson, RN, HMS St George, 14/5/1944, aged 43:-

Corporal J MacNaughton RAF, 8/9/1946, aged 28:-

Private J Blyth, The Black Watch, 3/1/1915:-

An unusual one this. It has a Commonwealth War Graves style headstone but is inscribed, “Alexander Ilytch Shenkman, born Moscow 29/11/1923, died Newburgh 21/2/2004.”:-