In Memory of
W STARLING
Private 2128
2nd Bn., Northumberland Fusiliers
who died on
Saturday, 13th March 1915.
Commemorative Information
Cemetery:
BAILLEUL COMMUNAL CEMETERY, Nord, France
Grave Reference/
Panel Number:
J. 24.
Location:
Bailleul is a large town in France, near the Belgian border, 14.5 kilometres south-west of
Ieper and on the main road from St. Omer to Lille. From the Grand place, take the Ieper
road and 400 metres along this road is a sign indicating the direction of the cemetery.
Turn down the right into a small road and follow for approximately 400 metres, the
cemetery is on the right.
Historical Information:
Bailleul was occupied on the 14th October, 1914, by the 19th Brigade and the 4th
Division. It became an important railhead, air depot and hospital centre; the 2nd, 3rd,
8th,
11th, 53rd, 1st Canadian and 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Stations were quartered in
it for considerable periods. It was a Corps Headquarters until July, 1917, when it was
severely bombed and shelled; and after the Battle of Bailleul (13th-15th April, 1918) it
fell
into German hands for over four months. The earliest British burials at Bailleul were made
at the East end of the Communal Cemetery; and in April, 1915, where the space available
had been filled, the Extension was opened on the East side of the cemetery. There are
now over 600, 1914-18 and a small number of 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in
this cemetery. Of these, a small number from the 1914-18 War and are unidentified. In
addition, seventeen of the graves were destroyed by shell fire and are represented by
special memorials; one of these is in Row C, and the others are apart. The British rows in
the cemetery cover an area of 591 square metres. In the centre of the town is the stone
obelisk erected by the 25th Division as their Memorial on the Western Front, recalling
particularly the beginning of their war service at Bailleul and their part in the Battle
of
Messines. The town War Memorial, a copy of the ruined tower and belfry of the Church of
St. Vaast, was unveiled in 1925 by the Lord Mayor of Bradford, the city which later
"adopted" Bailleul.
Copyright The Commonwealth War Graves Commission