Belgian Battery Corner Cemetery in Ypres

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  June Madison

  :: 05 October 2017 21:44:01

  Visited as I was looking for an Australian soldier who was in my extended family. I found it with great difficulty as I couldn't get any accurate directions. I went to Information centre and he lady there literally threw a book at me and said you will find everything you want to know in there! I took the book and couldn't find the Cemetery. I went back a few days later and was given a map and they marked it for me, again I drove around for miles again. I stopped and found nearby Railway Station and also bus station so if you go there use these 2 points as from there it is quite close down a country Lane and a close to fields. It is a small village and a small Cemetery with parking for no more than 2 cars being used by locals with no other parking places. The Cemetery is very well kept right in the country and surrounded by fields and a few houses mainly new builds. There are trees in the Cemetery and it is very quiet and peaceful. Soldiers from several countries are buried there mainly casualties from 1917, I found the grave of the soldier from Australia I was looking for where there are many Australian soldiers buried near one of the trees. I don't think it will have many visitors as most are from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. On one grave there was a photo someone had left on a grave, I took a photo of it and did some research when I got home, the person named on it was in the Australian Medical corp, Private William Oliver Venteman from Sydney Australia 5th Field Ambulance Medical Corp. I do not know which one he is on the photo as there are five others, are they all medics or others in the Australian forces? I have found a total of 10 medics and their details in there all killed within the same couple of months. I also found some who were in our local "Border Regiment" in Cumberland England. The most comforting thing was they are all together in a lovely well cared for Cemetery in a little corner of Belgium surrounded by fields, you can almost imagine them lying in the fields exchanging their stories of home and having a good laugh! I hope some ancestors a long way away will find this helpful