Historical Information (Source: CWGC)

Caberet Rouge" was a small, red-bricked, red-tiled café that stood close to this site in the early days of the First World War. The café was destroyed by shellfire in March 1915, but it gave its unusual name to this sector and to a communication trench that led troops up the front-line.

Many different Commonwealth units served in this sector during the war and the cemetery contains the graves of British, Irish, Australian, New Zealand, Indian and South African soldiers. It is also the final resting place of more than 70 officers of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force. Cabaret Rouge has a particularly close connection with the Canadian Infantry, however, as hundreds of Canadians who were killed at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917 were ultimately laid to rest here.

Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery contains more than 7,650 burials of the First World War.

Born December 25, 1888, at Audlem Vicarage. Henry was the son of the Reverend Arthur Atkinson, Canon of Chester Cathedral, and Ursula Mary Atkinson (née Cotton-Jodrell) and the grandson of the former Bishop of Calcutta. He was one of the first and one of the youngest men to be awarded the DSO.  Henry had been a member of Chester Golf Club and had won the Welsh Amateur Golf Championship in 1913. He received his commission in March 1913 and resided at the time at Highfield Hall, Northrop, Flint.

His citation for his DSO appeared in ‘The London Gazette’ on December 1, 1914 and read: ‘For conspicuous gallantry under heavy fire from both flanks by collecting a few men and checking the enemy, thereby facilitating the retirement of his comrades.’

Fought at Mons, Le Cateau and the Aisne. Regarded as the first officer from the Crewe and Nantwich area to fall. After the war, as no grave could be found, his family had a tombstone laid where they believed he had fallen.

In February 1923, his body (identified by his disc) was found together with another Cheshire soldier, about 400 yards from where the tombstone had been placed. His body was reinterred in the Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, and his tombstone placed in the Violaines Communal Cemetery by the Cheshire Regiment as a perpetual memorial to all those of the Regiment who had no known grave. After his death, it was reputed that his uncle, an influential man in the Cheshire Regiment, War Office and Parliament, had Henry posthumously promoted to Lieutenant.

XXVII. A. 5. Lt The Hon. George Philip French - 5th Baron De Freyne

One of his brothers is buried next to him

XXVII. A. 5. Arthur Reginald, 5th Baron De Freyne 

One brother is buried in Germany and another in Belgium

The Hon. Edward Fulke French - NIEDERZWEHREN CEMETERY, KASSEL - III. F. 1.

The Hon. Ernest Aloysius French - DOZINGHEM MILITARY CEMETERY - III. I. 18.

XII. E. 15. and XII. E. 16. Canadian brothers Wilfred, age 28, and Olivier, age 27,  Chenier. Both died 9 April 1917