In Memory of
Ernest John Starling
Private
202035
1st/5th Bn., Royal Warwickshire Regiment
who died on
Wednesday, 29th March 1917. Age 29.
Additional Information:
Son of George and Eliza Starling, of 72, Ebrington St., Plymouth.
Commemorative Information
Cemetery:
EPEHY WOOD FARM CEMETERY, EPEHY
Grave Reference/
Panel Number:
V. B. 13.
Location:
Epehy is a village between Cambrai and Peronne about 18 kilometres north-east of Peronne.
Epehy
Wood Farm Cemetery is a little west of the village and on the north side of the road to
Saulcourt.
Historical Information:
The village of Epehy was captured at the beginning of April, 1917. It was lost on the 22nd
March
1918, after a gallant defence by the Leicester Brigade of the 21st Division and the 2nd
Royal
Munster Fusiliers. It was retaken (in the Battle of Epehy) on the 18th September 1918, by
the 7th
Norfolks, 9th Essex and 1st/1st Cambridgeshires of the 12th (Eastern) Division and a stone
cross
erected by the Divison, stands beside the road to Ronssoy, about 450 metres South East of
the
village.
The cemetery takes its name from the Ferme du Bois, a little to the East. Plots I and II
were
made by the 12th Division after the capture of the village, and contain the graves of
officers and
men who fell in September, 1918 (or, in a few instances, in April, 1917, and March, 1918).
Plots
III-VI were made after the Armistice, by the concentration of graves from smaller
cemeteries and
from the battlefields surrounding Epehy.
There are now nearly 1,000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these,
over
200 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 29 soldiers from the United
Kingdom,
known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of two
soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in Epehy New British Cemetery, whose graves could
not
be found when that cemetery was concentrated.
The cemetery covers an area of 3,841 square metres and is enclosed on three sides by a
rubble
wall.
The burial grounds concentrated into Epehy Wood Farm Cemetery included the following:-
DEELISH VALLEY CEMETERY, EPEHY, in the valley running from South-West to North-East 1.6
kilometres East of Epehy village. It contained the graves of 158 soldiers from the United
Kingdom
(almost all of the 12th Division) who fell in September, 1918.
EPEHY NEW BRITISH CEMETERY, on the South side of the village, containing the graves of 100
soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in August, 1917-March, 1918 and in September,
1918.
EPEHY R.E. CEMETERY, 137 metres North of the New British Cemetery. It contained the graves
of
31 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in April-December, 1917, and of whom 11
belonged
to the 429th Field Company, Royal Engineers.
Copyright The Commonwealth War Graves Commission