Historical Information (Source: CWGC)

Post Office Rifles Cemetery Post Office Rifles Cemetery was named after an English volunteer unit formed in the 1860s and composed mostly of Post Office employees. By 1914 the unit provided most of the riflemen for the 1/8th battalion of the City of London Regiment of the Territorial Force. British troops began burying their fallen comrades here in April 1915 and the cemetery was used until the beginning of July, at which stage it contained the graves of 40 Commonwealth soldiers, almost all of whom had served with the Post Office Rifles. The gains made by Commonwealth forces during Battle of Festubert (15 – 25 May 1915) meant that the town was now less exposed to enemy fire and this sector remained relatively quiet until the German Spring Offensive of 1918.

The cemetery was extended after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the surrounding battlefields, and in particular from the part of the line defended by the 55th Division in April 1918. It was designed by Charles Holden and now contains more than 400 First World War burials, over 270 of which are unidentified.