In Memory of
George Thomas Starling
Private
6506
1st Bn., Norfolk Regiment
who died on
Sunday, 4th June 1916. Age 33.
Additional Information:
Husband of M. E. Secker (formerly Starling), of 8, White Lion Yard, Magdalen St., Norwich.
Commemorative Information
Cemetery:
FAUBOURG D'AMIENS CEMETERY, ARRAS
Grave Reference/
Panel Number:
I. C. 20.
Location:
Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery is in the western part of the town of Arras in the Boulevard du
General de Gaulle, near the Citadel, approximately 2 kilometres due west of the railway
station.
Within this cemetery will also be found the Arras Memorial, which commemorates over
35,000 casualties of the British, New Zealand and South African Forces who have no known
grave and who died between Spring 1916 and the 7th August 1918, excluding casualties of
the Battle of Cambrai.
Historical Information:
Arras was raided by German forces at the end of August 1914 and occupied, briefly, by the
Germans during the last fortnight in September. It was fiercely and unsuccessfully
attacked
again in October, but it remained in Allied hands until the end of the War. It passed from
French to British occupation in the Spring of 1916. It has given its name to the Battles
of
April and May 1917, in which the German front at Vimy and on the Scarpe was broken; to
the Battle of the 28th March 1918, in which the German attack on the Third Army was
defeated; and to the Battles of August and September 1918, in which the Third Army helped
to break the Hindenburg line.
The Communal Cemetery of Arras, on the East side of the town, was under fire during the
1914-18 War; and civilian burials were made in the French Military Cemetery which was
opened in the Western suburb. This Military Cemetery contained in the end the graves of
770 French soldiers. Behind it there grew up, from March 1916 to November 1918, the
present cemetery. It was made by Field Ambulances and fighting units. It was increased,
after the Armistice, by the concentration of graves from the battlefields of Arras and
from
two smaller cemeteries, and about the same time the French graves in front of it were
removed to other burial grounds. Two of the British graves were destroyed by shell fire
and
are represented by special memorials.
During the 1939-45 War Arras was British General Headquarters in 1940. Rear Headquarters
left on May 19th, and the town was evacuated on May 23rd, of that year. Thereafter Arras
was in German hands until re-taken on September 1st, 1944, by British and Free French
infantry.
There are now over 2,500, 1914-18 and a small number of 1939-45 war casualties
commemorated in this site.
The cemetery over an area of 16,250 square metres and is enclosed by a wall.
Graves from the following two cemeteries were concentrated into Faubourg-d'Amiens
Cemetery:-
LIGNEREUIL MILITARY CEMETERY, on the outskirts of the village, beside the road to Aubigny,
which was begun by French troops and contained the graves of seven soldiers from the
United Kingdom.
RUE-ST. MICHEL BRITISH CEMETERY, ARRAS, in the Eastern part of the town, containing the
graves of 89 soldiers from the United Kingdom and two from Canada who fell in April and
May
1917.
Copyright The Commonwealth War Graves Commission