About Vis-En-Artois Cemetery
Vis-En-Artois Cemetery is a burial site of Canadian and British soldiers who died in the First World War located between the villages of Vis-En-Artois and Haucourt.
Vis-En-Artois Cemetery history
Canadian forces took these villages in August 1918 and Vis-En-Artois Cemetery, which originally held 430 graves belonging to fallen Canadian soldiers and some from the Second Duke of Wellington regiment, has since been expanded to incorporate graves from smaller, surrounding cemeteries.
The Vis-en-Artois Memorial commemorates 9,847 Allied officers and men who were killed in the period from 8th August 1918 to 11th November 1918. The battle period is known by the Allies as the “Advance to Victory”. This was a series of battles fought in Picardy and Artois during the last months of the war, when the Allied Forces successfully pushed the German Army eastwards as far as Mons over the Belgian border.
The men commemorated on this memorial have no known grave. They are from the Armies of Great Britain, Ireland and South Africa.
The memorial is located at the northern end of the Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery. It comprises two 70 foot high pylons with the Stone of Remembrance in the centre section between them, and a wing on either side of the centre section containing the names of the fallen.
A sculpted relief of St. George and the Dragon is located on the wall behind the Stone of Remembrance. The memorial was designed by J.R. Truelove, with sculpture by Ernest Gillick. It was unveiled by the Rt. Hon. Thomas Shaw on 4 August 1930.
Vis-En-Artois Cemetery today
Vis-En-Artois Cemetery is now home to 2,369 First World War graves and is managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Many of the graves at Vis-En-Artois Cemetery are unidentified and there are also several memorials.
The Panel Numbers quoted at the end of each entry relate to the panels dedicated to the Regiment served with. In some instances where a casualty is recorded as attached to another Regiment, their name may alternatively appear within their Regimental Panels. Please refer to the on-site Memorial Register Introduction to determine the alternative panel numbers if you do not find the name within the quoted Panels.
The memorial is accessible to the public daily and is open at all hours.
Getting to Vis-En-Artois Cemetery
Vis-en-Artois and Haucourt are villages on the straight main road from Arras to Cambrai about 10 kilometres south-east of Arras. The Memorial is the back drop to the Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery, which is west of Haucourt on the north side of the main road. There is free parking on site.
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