Vaulx Hill Cemetery
Location
Vaulx-Vraucourt is a village in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais, six kilometres north-east of Bapaume. Vaulx Hill Cemetery is signposted from the village. Take the D36 direction Lagnicourt up the hill, and the Cemetery can be seen at the road side a kilometre from Vaulx-Vraucourt.
| GPS | N | E | OSM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decimal | 50.151098 | 2.918501 | Map |
Historical Information
Vaulx-Vraucourt village was taken in the spring of 1917, lost (after severe fighting) in March 1918, and retaken in the following September. Vaulx Hill Cemetery started with just 17 graves of September 1918 (in Plot I, Rows A and B).
The rest of the cemetery was formed after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields in the immediate neighbourhood and the following smaller cemeteries :
- Chafours Wood Cemetery, Morchies, which contained 17 Australian and five United Kingdom graves of 1917.
- Lagnicourt Australian Cemetery, which contained seven Australian graves of 1917 and 27 United Kingdom of September 1918.
- New Zealand Cemetery No.17, Favreuil, where 22 of the 2nd New Zealand Rifles Brigade were buried in August 1918.
- Sunken Road Cemetery, Beaumetz-les-Cambrai, which contained 23 Australian and five United Kingdom graves of May 1917.
- Vraucourt Churchyard Extension, which was across the road from the Church and contained 185 United Kingdom and seven Australian graves of 1917 and 1918 (a German Extension was also removed).
The cemetery now contains 856 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 258 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate 29 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and four others buried in other cemeteries whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.
Lieutenant Cecil Sewell VC
Queen’s Own
Royal West Kent Regiment
Attached 3rd (Light) Tank Bn
Tank Corps
Died on 29th August 1918 aged 23
Son of Harry and Mary Sewell
of 26 Crooms Hill, Greenwich, London
Grave: I D 3
The London Gazette 30982
29th October 1918
When in command of a section of Whippet Light Tanks in action this officer displayed most conspicuous bravery and initiative in getting out of his own Tank and crossing open ground under heavy shell and machine-gun fire to rescue the crew of another Whippet of his section which had side slipped into a large shell-hole, overturned and taken fire. The door of the Tank having become jammed against the side of the shell-hole, Lt Sewell, by his own unaided efforts, dug away the entrance to the door and released the crew.
In so doing he undoubtedly saved the lives of the officer and men inside the Tank as they could not have got out without his assistance. After having extricated the crew, seeing one of his own crew lying wounded behind his Tank, he again dashed across the open ground to his assistance. He was hit in doing so, but succeeded in reaching the Tank when a few minutes later he was again hit, fatally, in the act of dressing his wounded driver.
During the whole of this period he was within full view and short range of the enemy machine guns and rifle-pits, and throughout, by his prompt and heroic action, showed an utter disregard for his own personal safety.
His brothers Harry and Herbert also fell.
Lieutenant Harry Sewell RFA
Died on 20th August 1917 aged 32
Buried Charlton Cemetery Greenwich
Grave 2 ‘C’ C
Lieutenant Herbert Sewell, RFA
Died on 13th November 1916 aged 27
Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial
Pier 1A
Private Richard Pell 34315
2/4th Bn Duke of Wellington’s
Died on 1st September 1918 aged 17
Son of Richard and Mary Pell
of 10, Foxbridge Row, Normanton, Yorks
Grave: III H 13
Private Arthur Jeffs 633841
20th Bn London Regiment
Died on 30th August 1918 aged 30
Son of Daniel and Ellen Jeffs
of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire
Grave: II B 5
16 years chorister
St Catherine’s Church
Milford Haven, South Wales
Lieutenant Colonel Bertram Watts DSO
4th Brigade Australian Field Artillery
Died on 10th April 1917 aged 37
Son of Bertram and Sarah Watts
Born at Adelaide, South Australia
Grave: II B 3
Lieutenant Herbert Harding
4th Brigade Australian Field Artillery
Died on 10th April 1917 aged 34
Born at Gympie, Queensland
Son of Silas and Janey Harding
of Glenharding, Harlin, Queensland
Grave: II B 6