Guards Grave

As its name suggests, this was originally formed as a collective grave. It contains the bodies of 73 identified and 20 unidentified British soldiers. All of the identified soldiers are named on headstones arranged around the rear wall of the site but these do not indicate individual burial places. Each headstone has been given a number but these are not plot numbers. Because of space constraints two soldiers are named on each headstone. Consequently, each headstone number will apply to two soldiers e.g., Ayers and Jamieson share headstone number 18. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission recognises three plots: Plot I is the Collective Grave; Plot II contains the graves of the four officers reburied from Villers Cotterets Communal Cemetery; and Plot III is the grave of an Irish Guardsmen, also reburied from that cemetery.

Those buried here died as a result of a violent action in the Forest of Retz near Villers Cotterets, Aisne during the Retreat from Mons. On 1st September 1914 soldiers of the Grenadier, Coldstream and Irish Guards acting as rearguard held the line against the vastly greater numbers of the advancing German army for several hours. These were no conscripts but fully trained regulars and their disciplined rifle fire took a toll of the enemy. As the morning progressed the fighting became confused and at close quarters in the thick, beautiful beech woods. Some Grenadier units were surrounded and fought to the end.

The Guards took very heavy losses but managed to filter back towards Villers Cotterets having achieved their objective of delaying the advance. The Germans had a large pit dug into which they flung the British dead. The area was recaptured by French troops just a few weeks later. In mid-November the grave was exhumed by a small party, including senior figures related to officers lost in the fighting. The bodies of four officers and seventy-two other ranks were identified. A further twenty other ranks could not be identified. It is regrettable that while the officers were then buried in individual graves in Villers Cotterets Communal Cemetery the other ranks, both identified and unidentified, were reburied in the enlarged collective grave. The removal of identity discs etc from those other ranks identified meant that there was never any possibility of them being given individual burial following the establishment of the Imperial War Graves Commission in 1917. Following the Armistice, the four officers remains and those of an Irish Guardsman were reburied in individual graves adjacent to the collective grave.