Harrogate (Stonefall) Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery

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Harrogate (Stonefall)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Harrogate (Stonefall) Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery entrance stone
Used for those deceased 1943-1947
Location 53.9862° N 1.4950421° W near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
Total burials 1017 (including special memorials)
Unknown
burials		 1
Burials by war
World War I: 23

World War II: 988
Statistics source: CWGC

Harrogate (Stonefall) Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of World War I and World War II located on the outskirts of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England.

The cemetery grounds are located next to the main municipal cemetery and crematorium for the district.[1]

Contents

[edit] Foundation

This area of Yorkshire had many RAF bases during World War II. In particular, No 6 RCAF Bomber Group had headquarters at Allerton Park in nearby Knaresborough.[2]

An area of the municipal cemetery was set aside for use as a war cemetery at the start of the war and received burials, mostly from after July 1943, mostly airmen, mostly Canadians, until after the end of the war.[2] Burials are from northern airfields and the military wing of the now demolished Harrogate General Hospital in Starbeck.[2]

Within the cemetery, there are burials of or memorials to 23 World War I troops.[2]

[edit] Notable graves

Many of the burials are from aircrews killed in training or on the ground or who died later in the local hospital. Amongst the burials in the cemetery are three (all Canadians) of the seven crew of a Lancaster bomber that crashed on Helmsley Moor on the morning of 17 May 1944.[3] Five burials (all serving in the RCAF, but two were from the United States) in adjoining plots are of the crew of Halifax bomber EB203, which crashed into a railway bridge in Bishop Monkton on 15 April 1944.[4]

[edit] Special memorials

A plaque in the cemetery records the names of 12 servicemen of World War II who were cremated rather than being buried here.[5]

A special memorial commemorates six World War I troops whose graves are in local churchyards around Yorkshire and cannot be maintained by the Commission.[2] The actual grave of one of those commemorated, Edgar Audsley, has since been destroyed as part of development works on the site of South Ossett Baptist Burial Ground.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in the United Kingdom leaflet ISA22, p2, published May 2005, accessed 12 January 2008
  2. ^ a b c d e Commonwealth War Graves Commission, accessed 12 January 2008
  3. ^ Allenby.info, accessed 12 January 2008
  4. ^ Allenby.info: EB203, accessed 12 January 2007
  5. ^ http://www.ww1cemeteries.com/british_cemeteries_memorials_ext/harrogate_stonefall_cem.htm WW1Cemeteries.com], accessed 12 January 2008
  6. ^ The Campaign for War Grave Commemorations, accessed 12 January 2007

[edit] External links