Le Catelet Churchyard
Photo added by Denis Woolaston

Le Catelet Churchyard

Le Catelet, Departement de l'Aisne, Picardie, France

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  • Get directions Le Catelet, Picardie, France
    Coordinates: 50.00310, 3.24628
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Four of the men buried here -- Privates Robert (or Thomas) Digby, Thomas Donohoe, David Martin, and William Thorpe -- had become separated from their units after the Battle of Le Cateau in August, 1914, and found themselves trapped behind enemy lines. They were found and given shelter by villagers in the hamlet of Villeret and were able to live there, eluding German discovery, until Donohoe, Martin, and Thorpe were betrayed and captured on May 16, 1916. They were shot as spies at German headquarters at a chateau in nearby Le Catelet on May 27. Digby, who had fallen in love with a local girl and had had a child with her, turned himself in three days later, apparently to lessen the possibility of reprisals against the villagers who had helped the four soldiers for 17 months. He was also shot. The bodies were buried in the Le Catelet Churchyard. At first the Germans insisted that the graves remain unmarked, but under cover of darkness the villagers soon covered the plots with flowers. The Germans then placed a guard on the cemetery. The villagers who had been most involved with hiding the men were given sentences ranging from forced labor to deportation. In 1998, a memorial was unveiled at the site where the four had been executed in a ceremony attended by Digby's 82 year-old daughter. The story of the men's odyssey was told in the book The Englishman's Daughter - A true story of love and betrayal in the Great War by Ben MacIntyre (2001). (The book was published in England under the title A Foreign Field.)

Four of the men buried here -- Privates Robert (or Thomas) Digby, Thomas Donohoe, David Martin, and William Thorpe -- had become separated from their units after the Battle of Le Cateau in August, 1914, and found themselves trapped behind enemy lines. They were found and given shelter by villagers in the hamlet of Villeret and were able to live there, eluding German discovery, until Donohoe, Martin, and Thorpe were betrayed and captured on May 16, 1916. They were shot as spies at German headquarters at a chateau in nearby Le Catelet on May 27. Digby, who had fallen in love with a local girl and had had a child with her, turned himself in three days later, apparently to lessen the possibility of reprisals against the villagers who had helped the four soldiers for 17 months. He was also shot. The bodies were buried in the Le Catelet Churchyard. At first the Germans insisted that the graves remain unmarked, but under cover of darkness the villagers soon covered the plots with flowers. The Germans then placed a guard on the cemetery. The villagers who had been most involved with hiding the men were given sentences ranging from forced labor to deportation. In 1998, a memorial was unveiled at the site where the four had been executed in a ceremony attended by Digby's 82 year-old daughter. The story of the men's odyssey was told in the book The Englishman's Daughter - A true story of love and betrayal in the Great War by Ben MacIntyre (2001). (The book was published in England under the title A Foreign Field.)

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