Vevey (St. Martin's) Cemetery

Country Switzerland
Total identified casualties 136 Find these casualties
Identified casualties from First & Second World War
GPS Coordinates Latitude: 46.46315, Longitude: 6.84824

Location information

Vevey is a town on the northern shore of Lake Geneva (also known as Lake Leman), close to the eastern end of the lake. The cemetery is located above the main railway station. From the station follow the Chemin de l'Esperance. The main entrance to the cemetery is in the Chemin du Point du Jour. The Commonwealth war graves plot forms part of Plot 53, which is roughly in the centre of the cemetery.

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History information

In the year 1916, agreements were made between the Swiss Government and the French, British and German Governments under which a certain number of wounded prisoners of war were interned in Switzerland. The first British prisoners arrived on Swiss soil at the end of May, 1916; and the average number under treatment during the remainder of the war was 2,000. Of these, 61 died before repatriation; and, including other casualties, 88 British and Dominion sailors, soldiers and airmen, fallen in the Great War, are buried in Swiss soil. The 1914-18 War graves were concentrated in from the following sites; at Arosa, at Berne, at Chateaud'oex, at Chur, at Clarens, at Constance, at Couvet, at Fribourg, at Interlaken, at Laufenburg, at Lausanne, at Lauterbrunnen, at Leysin and at Sierre. During the 1939-45 War, Switzerland was again neutral and accorded asylum to refugees of various types; soldiers who had crossed the frontiers during operations; prisoners of war escaping German and Italian prison camps,; civilians escaping from concentration camps or fleeing from feared imprisonment; and frontier fugitives of the last stages of the war. Despite repatriation measures the number of refugees increased steadily, and from 16,000 in 1942 they rose to 110,000 by May 1945. The commonwealth graves of this period are therefore of either escaped prisoners of war or airmen who crashed in or near Switzerland.