St Symphorien Military Cemetery,Mons, Belgium. February 2014 John Parr, first British Soldier to die in WW1 on 21 August 1914.
St Symphorien Military Cemetery,Mons, Belgium. February 2014 Seen here : the headstone marking the grave of Private John Parr of the Middlesex Regiment who was fatally wounded during an encounter with a German patrol two days before the battle, thus becoming the first British soldier to be killed in action on the Western Front and facing Parr, the grave of Private George Ellison who died just before the armistice on 11th November 1918 making him the last British Soldier to die during WW1. The cemetery contains British and Commonwealth WW1 dead who lie under white headstones, the German dead are under grey granite headstones. Both friend and foe are buried together in the same cemetery. The cemetery at St. Symphorien was established by the German Army in August 1914 as the final resting place for British and German soldiers who were killed at the Battle of Mons. Among those buried here is Private John Parr of the Middlesex Regiment who was fatally wounded during an encounter with a German patrol two days before the battle, thus becoming the first British soldier to be killed in action on the Western Front. The cemetery remained in German hands until the end of the war and also contains the graves of Commonwealth and German soldiers who were killed in the final days of the conflict, including George Ellison of the Royal Irish Lancers and George Price of the Canadian Infantry. Ellison and Price were killed on November 11, 1918 and are believed to be the last Commonwealth casualties of the First World War. In total, there are 284 German and 230 Commonwealth casualties buried in this site.
Size: 5212px × 3467px
Location: St Symphorien Cemetery, Mons, Belgium
Photo credit: © BRIAN HARRIS / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1917, battlefield, belgium, brian, carnage, cemetery, ellison, fallen, george, great, harris, hero, honor, honour, john, landscape, mons, parr, place, resting, st, symphorien, trees, war, world, ww1
