With more than 11,900 who died in WW1 buried or commemorated, Tyne Cot Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world. More than 8,370 of the burials are unidentified.
The area was captured from the Germans in October 1917. One of the German blockhouses was then used as an advanced dressing station. The cemetery was to bury those who did not survive their wounds, about 350 in all. Following the Armistice, bodies from several smaller nearby cemeteries were moved to Tyne Cot. These include many of those killed in the Battles of Langemarck and Passchendaele.
Three of the original German blockhouses are incorporated into the design of the cemetery. The Cross of Sacrifice tops one, at the suggestion of King George V.
The Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing is a semicircular wall forming the rear of the cemetery. A domed pavilion at each end of the wall is topped by a winged woman holding a wreath.
The names of over 35,000 British and New Zealand soldiers are inscribed on Portland stone panels. The Battle of Langemarck marks the division between the Menin Gate and Tyne Cot memorials: those who died before 16 August 1917 are named on the Menin Gate, those who died from then on are named on Tyne Cot.
The New Zealand Memorial is a central apse in the memorial: “here are recorded the names of officers and men of New Zealand who fell in the Battle of Broodseinde and the first Battle of Passchendaele, October 1917, and whose graves are known only to God.”
The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker. The memorial was dedicated on 20 June 1927.
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