Longuenesse (St. Omer) Souvenir Cemetery
- Country France
- Total identified casualties 3397 Find these casualties
- Region Pas de Calais
- Identified casualties from First & Second World War
- GPS Coordinates Latitude: 50.73114, Longitude: 2.25023
Location information
St. Omer is a large town 45 kilometres south-east of Calais. Longuenesse is a commune on the southern outskirts of St. Omer. The Cemetery is approximately 3 kilometres from St Omer, beside the Wizernes (Abbeville) road (the D928), at its junction with the Rue des Bruyeres.
Visiting information
Car parking is available at the front of the main entrance but is restricted. However, there is a large car park at the rear of the cemetery and access can be made via the service entrance.
Wheelchair access to this cemetery is possible with some difficulty. For further information regarding wheelchair access, please contact our Enquiries Section on telephone number 01628 507200.
Please note, in some rows there are two headstones per grave, which can cause confusion when counting headstones to find a grave. If a headstone is not found by counting headstones, then we suggest continuing to look further along the row as for instance, the headstone for grave 10 could be 19th or 20th headstone in the row.
History information
St. Omer was the General Headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force from October 1914 to March 1916. Lord Roberts died there in November 1914. The town was a considerable hospital centre with the 4th, 10th, 7th Canadian, 9th Canadian and New Zealand Stationary Hospitals, the 7th, 58th (Scottish) and 59th (Northern) General Hospitals, and the 17th, 18th and 1st and 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Stations all stationed there at some time during the war. St. Omer suffered air raids in November 1917 and May 1918, with serious loss of life.
The cemetery takes its names from the triangular cemetery of the St. Omer garrison, properly called the Souvenir Cemetery (Cimetiere du Souvenir Francais) which is located next to the War Cemetery.
The Commonwealth section of the cemetery contains 2,874 Commonwealth burials of the First World War (6 unidentified), with special memorials commemorating 23 men of the Chinese Labour Corps whose graves could not be exactly located. Second World War burials number 403, (93 unidentified). Within the Commonwealth section there are also 34 non-war burials and 239 war graves of other nationalities.
The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.