The port city of Dunkirk is perhaps best known for the ‘miracle of Dunkirk’ evacuation from its beaches in May/June 1940, but the area saw heavy fighting at both ends of the Second World War and during the First World War too.
Dunkirk was the landing point for soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force in September and October 1914 and so it’s not surprising that this extensive site – cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission – is the last resting place for soldiers, sailors, and airmen from both conflicts.
There are 460 First World War burials of Commonwealth servicemen and 793 from the Second World War, with over 200 of these unidentified; their headstones inscribed that they are ‘Known to God’. As with many war cemeteries, the recording of so many burials is never exact, and there are headstones to 58 soldiers known to have been buried at the site, but their exact locations is not known.
The most startling reminder of the cost of war are the names on the Dunkirk Memorial, unveiled in June 1957. It features over 150 engraved stone columns listing 4,528 casualties of the British Expeditionary Force who were killed in 1939 and 1940 but have no known grave.
These come from almost every regiment of the British Army, from Navy and Merchant Navy ships, the Royal Air Force, and even include several non-combatants caught up in the conflict.
There are also dual names of those who served under a different name to their actual name, as was sometimes the case during both world wars.
Among them is Captain The 16th Viscount Gormanston of The King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry who was killed on June 9, 1940, aged 25. His real name was Jenico Richard William Preston, son of the late Jenico Edward Joseph Preston, 15th Viscount Gormanston, and of Eileen Alice, Viscountess Gormanston (nee Butler); and husband of the Viscountess Gormanston (nee Hanley), of Naas, Co. Kildare, Irish Republic.
Others chose to serve under different names for various reason including those who relisted after being dishonourably discharged, were trying to hide their past, were underage, or to hide it from their families. Some changed their ancestral names to less German sounding ones to avoid conflict while serving!
The Reverend Leslie Philip Riches’ name is also remembered on the memorial. Serving with the Royal Army Chaplains' Department, he was killed on June 1, 1940, as he tended the wounded evacuating from the beaches.
The most decorated of those remembered on the memorial is Lieutenant Christopher Furness, of the Welsh Guards, who was the recipient of Britain’s highest award for gallantry, the Victoria Cross for actions in Arras in May 1940. He was 28.
The memorial’s brick and Portland stone columns lead you along a path to the shrine where an engraved glass window - created by New Zealand artist John Hutton - depicts scenes from the mayhem of the 1940 beach evacuation. Near to it stands the Cross of Sacrifice, a feature of all Commonwealth war grave sites.
Alongside British soldiers, sailors, and airmen, there are graves of those who fought alongside them from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, India, South Africa, Norway, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, the latter nation’s graves standing out from the standard British headstones as you can see in our gallery of images.
Some of those interred here are buried in pairs, with one headstone in particular showing that in death that classes and ranks are remembered equally.
In Plot 1, Row 1, Grave 26 you can find the headstone of Lieutenant Colonel John Douglas Bell – awarded the Military Cross - from the Royal Army Ordnance Corps who was killed aged 43 on May 27, 1940, a day after the start of the Dunkirk evacuation.
Buried with him is Private Samuel Granville Roberts, of the West Yorkshire Regiment. Aged just 20, he was killed on June 3, 1940 – just hours before the final day of the evacuation.
Other joint headstones are of soldiers who died together in their ships, aircraft, or vehicles with some unknown soldiers buried with those who could be identified, often from the same unit or regiment.
As you’d expect from a CWGC managed cemetery, the site is well maintained and continues to honour the memories of those who served and fell with great respect.