Fromelles Cemetery

Work commenced on Monday 18 May preparing the site for the new Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Fromelles.

Photo: Work has commenced on new cemetery site. [Carole Laignel]

Photo: Cemetery site after a day & night of rain. [Carole Laignel]

The cemetery is located on Rue de la Basse Ville (50^o36’28.66”N, 2^o51’03.71”E) and will be known as the Fromelles Pheasant Wood Cemetery.

Photo: Aerial photo of new cemetery site [CWGC]

The design of the cemetery resembles other World War 1 Cemeteries constructed throughout the Western Front.

Photo: Computer generated image of site. [CWGC]

The site will be levelled before the foundations and stabilising piles can be installed on the site.

Upon completion the cemetery will have as its focal point a Cross of Sacrifice as shown in the computer generated graphic.

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The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has provided the following update on work completed so far at the Pheasant Wood archaeological site to exhume the bodies of the soldiers whose final resting place is being prepared.

Thursday 21^st May:
Oxford Archaeology have excavated graves 1 and 2 with earthmoving equipment to a level above where remains are expected to be found.

Excavation has now continued by hand using small tool techniques to the level of the remains.

A small quantity of bones which had previously been revealed in last years trial dig have been x-rayed and are further being processed prior to the removal of the full skeletons.

Preparatory work has commenced on the sampling techniques and methodologies which will be used on the remains prior to DNA viability testing.

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The Families and Friends of the First AIF thanks the Australian, UK and French governments for affording Australian and British soldiers – presently buried in mass graves at Pheasant Wood – dignified individual reburials in a new CWGC cemetery at Fromelles, and applauds Minister Snowdon and his British counterpart, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Veterans, Kevan Jones MP, for their joint decision to DNA test the remains at exhumation and use every reasonable method to attempt identification of each soldier.