Devonshire Cemetery | Richard Cartwright

Rich In History

Mametz is a village in the Department of the Somme, 6.5 kilometres east of Albert.

Devonshire Cemetery is 800 metres south of Mametz and is situated on high ground some 450 metres west of the road from Albert to Peronne (D938), 6.5 kilometres from Albert.

Mametz was within the German lines until 1 July 1916 when it was captured by the 7th Division, and Mametz Wood, north-east of the village, was cleared on the days following 7 July.

The 8th and 9th Battalions of the Devonshire Regiments, forming parts of the 7th Division, attacked on 1 July 1916 from a point on the south-west side of Albert-Maricourt road, due south of Mametz village, by a plantation called Mansel Copse. It was there, on 4 July, that they buried their dead in a section of their old front line trench. All but two of the burials belong to these battalions.

The poet Lt William Noel Hodgson is buried in this cemetery.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens & William Harrison Cowlishaw

Casualty Details: UK 163, Total Burials: 163