Loos British Cemetery
Historical Information (Source: CWGC)
The cemetery was begun by the Canadian Corps in July 1917, and the graves then made are contained in Rows A and B of Plot I and Row A of Plot II. The remainder of the cemetery was formed after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the battlefields and smaller cemeteries over a wide area North and East of the village. The great majority of the soldiers buried here fell in the Battle of Loos.
There are nearly 3,000, 1914-18 and a small number of 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, two-thirds from the 1914-18 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to two soldiers from the United Kingdom and four from Canada who are known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 44 soldiers from Canada and 12 from the United Kingdom, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire. The cemetery covers an area of 11,364 square metres and is enclosed by a rubble wall.
There are two graves of the Second World War.
Plot 18. Row G. Grave 32.
Flying Officer Harold Thomas CRAMPTON - 416861
514 (R.A.F.) Sqdn. Royal New Zealand Air Force - Died 11 August 1944 Age 26
Friday 11 August 1944, 514 Squadron Lancaster II LL697/B2 took off at 14.13 hours captained by W/O W.D. Brickwood for a raid on Lens rail yards. Harold was killed in action on 11th August 1944 when the nose of Lancaster II LL697 in which he was flying as air bomber was struck by a bomb dropped by another aircraft, during a daylight raid against Lens marshalling yard.
Plot 18. Row G. Grave 31.
Serjeant Albert OATES - 822396
53 Lt. A.A. Regt. Royal Artillery
Died 12 April 1940 Age 28