In Memory of

HERBERT JAMES HEAD

Rifleman

R/17495

2nd Bn., King's Royal Rifle Corps

who died on

Saturday, 1st July 1916. Age 39.

Additional Information: Rhodesian Platoon, Son of the late John Head (Inspector, Metropolitan Police);
husband of Mary Head, "Erne Vale," Dundee, Natal, South Africa.

Commemorative Information

Cemetery: MAROC BRITISH CEMETERY, Nord, France

Grave Reference/ Panel Number: I. JA. 13.

Location: Maroc British Cemetery is located in the village of Grenay, which is about 15 kilometres south-east of Bethune. From Lens take the N43 towards Bethune. After Loos-en-Gohelle turn left (after the petrol station) and continue straight on. The Cemetery is a few kilometres on the right side of the road, in the village.

Historical Information: The Cemetery was in fact begun by French troops in August, 1915, but it was first used as a British Cemetery by the 47th (London) Division in January, 1916. During the greater part of the War it was a front-line cemetery, protected from enemy observation by a slight rise in the ground, and used by fighting units and Field Ambulances. Plot II was begun in April, 1917, by the 46th (North Midland) Division. By the middle of October, 1918, Plot III, Row A and part of Row B, had been filled; and the remainder of Plot III and the ends of certain rows in Plot I contain the remains of soldiers buried on the battlefields, or in small cemeteries, North and East of Grenay, and brought in after the Armistice. There are now over 1,000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, nearly 300 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 89 British soldiers known to be buried among the unknown graves. In particular, 87 officers and men of the 6th London Regiment, who fell on the 25th September, 1915, in the capture of Loos, and were buried by themselves on the South-West side of the town, are now buried (but without individual identification) in Plot III, Rows H, J, K and L. The 8th Canadian Battalion erected a wooden memorial in the cemetery to their officers and men who fell in the Battle of Hill 70 (East of Loos) on the 15th August, 1917. The cemetery covers an area of 5,652 square metres. MAROC CHURCHYARD, in the middle of the village, was used for the burial of 18 British soldiers, between June, 1915 and January, 1916; but these were among the graves moved into Maroc British Cemetery after the Armistice. It was an enclosure not intended for burials, and not used for civilian burials.