Ypres Town Cemetery sits beside the Menin Road, not far from the Menin Gate in Ieper, (Ypres) Belgium.

It contains a number of Commonwealth War Graves of Great War dead.

I noted that these were all casualties from 1914. They were no doubt interred here since at that time there was no Commonwealth War Graves Commission to oversee the burials and these would have been done on an ad hoc basis. After the war they will have been given the honour of a CWGC headstone.

Reverse view of above:-

Several graves lay close together. Cpt Robert Giffard, Royal Field Artillery, 1/11/1914. Cpt A A L Stephen, DSO, Scots Guards, 31/10/1914. Cpt & Adjt W H Ferrar, Welch Regiment, 31/10/1914:-

2nd Lt J A Tucker, Royal Field Artillery, 1/11/1914. Cpt G P Shedden, Royal Garrison Artillery, 31/10/1914. Cpt J F Allen, Loyal North Lancs Regt, 5/11/1914 aged 32:-

Captain Shedden’s grave is unusual in having a separate memorial stone cross behind the CWGC one. This may have been erected by his family before the CWGC headstone and is probably only there because the cemetery is not in the care of the CWGC, where all headstones are the same shape and, beyond wording carved into the bottom of the stone, such individual commemorations are not allowed.