Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch
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Location
Region : Serre Les Puisieux, Somme, France
Latitude : 50.09616
Lontitude : 2.65231
CWGC Link : 67200
The village of Serre is 11 kilometres north-north-east of Albert. Using the D919 from Arras to Amiens you will drive through the villages of Bucquoy, Puisieux then Serre-les-Puisieux (approximately 20 kilometres south of Arras). On leaving Serre-les-Puisieux, 1.3 kilometres further along the D919, Serre Road No.2 Cemetery can be found on the left hand side.

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Cookstown Casualties
No     Rank Name Service No Regiment / Service Date Of Death Grave Ref
1 Portrait Portrait Lieut McKay, James Greer 466 Australian Machine Gun Corps 19/08/1916 Grave 20:B-16
Cemetery History
In June 1916, the road out of Mailly-Maillet to Serre and Puisieux entered No Man's Land about 1,300 metres south-west of Serre.
On 1 July 1916, the 31st and 4th Divisions attacked north and south of this road and although parties of the 31st Division reached Serre, the attack failed.
The 3rd and 31st Divisions attacked once more on the 13 November, but again without success.
Early in 1917, the Germans fell back to the Hindenburg Line and on 25 February, Serre was occupied by the 22nd Manchesters.
The village changed hands once more in March 1918 and remained under German occupation, until they withdrew in August.
In the spring of 1917, the battlefields of the Somme and Ancre were cleared by V Corps and a number of new cemeteries were made, three of which are now named from the Serre Road.
Serre Road Cemetery No.2 was begun in May 1917 and by the end of the war it contained approximately 475 graves (Plots I and II, except for Row E, Plot II which was added in 1922 and Row AA, Plot I which was added in 1927), but it was greatly enlarged after the Armistice by the addition of further graves from the surrounding area, including graves from the following smaller cemeteries:-
bullet BAIZIEUX COMMUNAL CEMETERY (Somme): one United Kingdom grave March 1918.
bullet BOISMONT CHURCHYARD (Somme): one United Kingdom grave of October 1914.
bullet BUCQUOY COMMUNAL CEMETERY (Pas-de-Calais): 25 United Kingdom graves of August 1918.
bullet ERCHEU CHURCHYARD (Somme): one United Kingdom grave of March 1918.
bullet FRETTECUISSE CHURCHYARD (Somme): one United Kingdom grave September 1916.
bullet HERVILLY CHURCHYARD (Somme): one R.F.C. grave of September 1916.
bullet HOLNON COMMUNAL CEMETERY (Aisne): five United Kingdom graves April 1917.
bullet LABOISSIERE CHURCHYARD (Somme): one United Kingdom grave of April 1917.
bullet LE SARS GERMAN CEMETERY (Pas-de-Calais): one United Kingdom grave.
bullet MADAME MILITARY CEMETERY, CLERY-SUR-SOMME (Somme): three United Kingdom graves of February 1917.
bullet MEAULTE CHURCHYARD (Somme): one United Kingdom grave of April 1916.
bullet POZIERES COMMUNAL CEMETERY (Somme): one Canadian grave of September 1916.
bullet REMIENCOURT COMMUNAL CEMETERY (Somme): one United Kingdom grave of April 1918.
bullet SOMME AMERICAN CEMETERY, BONY (Aisne): two United Kingdom graves of July and October 1918, and one Australian of September 1918.
bullet VOYENNES CHURCHYARD (Somme): seven United Kingdom graves of March 1918.
bullet YTRES CHURCHYARD (Pas-de-Calais): 14 United Kingdom and four New Zealand graves of September 1918, mainly from the 15th Field Ambulance.
There are now 7,127 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery, mostly dating from 1916. Of these, 4,944 are unidentified. The cemetery, which was not completed until 1934, was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.