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MILITARY RECORDS
Rifleman Robert Fraser MILNE
DEBT OF HONOUR REGISTER
In Memory of
ROBERT FRASER MILNE
Rifleman
58786
3rd Bn. 3rd, N.Z. Rifle Brigade
who died on
Monday 9 September 1918 . Age 21 .
Additional Information:
Son of Alexander and Jane Milne, of
Mataura, Southland, Invercargill, New Zealand.
Cemetery:
GOUZEAUCOURT NEW BRITISH CEMETERY Nord, France
Grave or Reference Panel Number:
VI. C. I.
Location:
Gouzeaucourt is a large village 15 kilometres south west of Cambrai and
15 kilometres north-east of Peronne. The village is built along the D917
which connects these two towns. Gouzeaucourt New British Cemetery is to
be found opposite the civil cemetery, which is just within the village
boundary on the D29, a road which connects Gouzeaucourt with Heudicourt.
Historical Information:
The village was captured by the 8th Division on the night of the 12th-13th
April 1917. It was lost on the 30th November 1917, in the German counterattack
at the end of the Battle of Cambrai, and recaptured the same day by the
1st Irish Guards. It was lost again on the 22nd March 1918, attacked by
the 38th (Welsh) Division on the following 18th September, and finally
retaken by the 21st Division on the 8th October. It was later "adopted"
by the City of Worcester. The cemetery was begun in November 1917, taken
over by the Germans in 1918, and used again by the British in September
and October 1918; but the original burials (now in Plot III) are only
55 in number. It was enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration
of graves from other cemeteries and from the battlefield of Cambrai. There
are now over 1,000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site.
Of these, nearly 400 are unidentified and special memorials are erected
to 21 soldiers from the United Kingdom and 13 from New Zealand, known
or believed to be buried among them. Another special memorial records
the name of a soldier buried in Gouzeaucourt Communal Cemetery in May
1917, whose grave was destroyed by shell fire. The cemetery covers an
area of 4,784 square metres and is enclosed by a brick wall. The burial
grounds concentrated to Gouzeaucourt New British Cemetery included:- ARVON
CEMETERY, HEUDICOURT, beside the road from Gouzeaucourt to Fins, begun
by the 38th (Welsh) Division in September 1918. It contained the graves
of 65 soldiers from the United Kingdom. GENIN WELL COPSE CEMETERY, HEUDICOURT,
between Heudicourt and "Chapel Hill," containing the graves
of 20 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in September and October
1918. GOUZEAUCOURT BRITISH CEMETERY, a little East of the railway line
on the road to Villers-Guislain, near a quarry. It was begun by the 2nd
Rifle Brigade in April 1917, and used until the following September; it
contained the graves of 29 soldiers from the United Kingdom. GOUZEAUCOURT
WOOD-CEMETERY, METZ-EN-COUTURE, a 1.6 kilometres East of Metz village.
It contained the graves of 44 soldiers from New Zealand (mainly of the
3rd (Rifle) Brigade) and-two from the United Kingdom, who fell in September
and October 1918.
IN MEMORY OF
RIFLEMAN ROBERT FRASER MILNE
58786, 3RD BN. 3RD, N.Z. RIFLE BRIGADE
WHO DIED AGE 21
ON MONDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 1918.
RIFLEMAN MILNE, SON OF ALEXANDER AND JANE MILNE, OF MATAURA, SOUTHLAND,
INVERCARGILL, NEW ZEALAND.
REMEMBERED WITH HONOUR
GOUZEAUCOURT NEW BRITISH CEMETERY
COMMEMORATED IN PERPETUITY BY
THE COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION
©2000-2002 The Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
All Rights Reserved.
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