In Memory of
Benjamin Alfred Starling
Second Lieutenant
2nd Bn., London Regt (Royal Fusiliers)
who died on
Friday, 23rd March 1918. Age 39.
Additional Information:
Son of John Henry and Jane Starling, of Greensborough, Victoria, Australia.
Commemorative Information
Cemetery:
ROCLINCOURT MILITARY CEMETERY
Grave Reference/
Panel Number:
IV. B. I.
Location:
Roclincourt is a village a little to the east of the road from Arras to Lens. Take the N
17 from Arras
until the junction of this road and the D 60 (first CWGC sign here). Travel along the D 60
into
Roclincourt village, for approximately one kilometre, to a right turn (direction St
Nicholas). Take
this road for approximately 175 metres to a lane on the right. The cemetery lies 100
metres away
at the foot of this lane.
Historical Information:
The French troops who held this front before March, 1916, made a Military Cemetery (now
removed), on the South-West side of which the present (British) Military Cemetery was
made. It
was begun by the 51st (Highland) and 34th Divisions in April, 1917, and it contains many
graves
of the 9th April (the first day of the Battles of Arras). It continued in use, as a
front-line cemetery,
until October, 1918; and after the Armistice graves, mostly from the battlefield North of
Roclincourt, were brought into Plot IV, Row F.
There are now over 900, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over
30 are
unidentified. The 22nd Royal Fusiliers erected a wooden memorial in the Cemetery to one
officer
and 27 N.C.O.'s and men who fell in action at Oppy in April and May, 1917.
The cemetery covers an area of 3,540 square metres and is enclosed by a concrete curb.
Copyright The Commonwealth War Graves Commission