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Debt of Honour Register
In Memory of
JOHN SNADDON THOMSON
Private
352947
17th Bn., Royal Scots
who died on
Monday 29 April 1918 . Age 21 .
Additional
Information: |
Son of Alexander S. and Elizabeth
Birnie Thomson, of Keilarsbrae, by Alloa, Clackmannanshire. |
Cemetery: |
DOULLENS COMMUNAL CEMETERY
EXTENSION No.2Somme, France |
Grave or Reference Panel Number: |
I. A. 34. |
Location: |
Doullens is a town in the
Department of the Somme, approximately 30 kilometres north of
Amiens on the N25 road to Arras. The Communal Cemetery and
Extensions lie on the eastern side of the town, about 270 metres
south-east of the road to Arras. |
Historical Information: |
Doullens was Marshal Foch's
headquarters early in the First World War and the scene of the
conference in March 1918, after which he assumed command of the
Allied armies on the Western Front. From the summer of 1915 to
March 1916, Doullens was a junction between the French Tenth
Army on the Arras front and the Commonwealth Third Army on the
Somme. The citadelle, overlooking the town from the south, was a
French military hospital, and the railhead was used by both
armies. In March 1916, Commonwealth forces succeeded the French
on the Arras front and the 19th Casualty Clearing Station came
to Doullens, followed by the 41st, the 35th and the 11th. By the
end of 1916, these had given way to the 3rd Canadian Stationary
Hospital (which stayed until June 1918) and the 2/1st
Northumbrian Casualty Clearing Station. From February 1916 to
April 1918, these medical units continued to bury in the French
extension (No 1) of the communal cemetery. In March and April
1918 the German advance and the desperate fighting on this front
threw a severe strain on the Canadian Stationary Hospital. The
extension was filled, and a second extension begun on the
opposite side of the communal cemetery. In May 1940, Doullens
was bombed with Arras and Abbeville before being occupied by the
Germans. The COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION No 1 contains 1,335
Commonwealth burials of the First World War. There are also
seven French and 13 German war graves from this period. Second
World War burials number 35, more than half of them men of the
Queen's Royal West Kents who died 20/21 May 1940. The COMMUNAL
CEMETERY EXTENSION no 2 contains 374 Commonwealth burials of the
First World War, and 87 German war graves. The COMMUNAL CEMETERY
itself contains ten Commonwealth burials of the Second World
War. The extensions were designed by Charles Holden. |
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