Coxyde Military Cemetery, Belgium – Cheltenham war memorial archive

LEAVING CHELTENHAM …………..and all that was dear

Coxyde Military Cemetery, Belgium

Location: Coxyde Military Cemetery is located approximately 500 metres beyond the village of Koksijde on the N396 towards De Panne, Belgium.

History: In June 1917, Commonwealth forces relieved French forces on 6 kilometres of front line from the sea to a point south of Nieuport (now Nieuwpoort), and held this sector for six months. Coxyde (now Koksijde) was about 10 kilometres behind the front line. The village was used for rest billets and was occasionally shelled, but the cemetery, which had been started by French troops, was found to be reasonably safe. It became the most important of the Commonwealth cemeteries on the Belgian coast and was used at night for the burial of the dead brought back from the front line.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

2 “Cheltonians” are buried in this Cemetery

The inscription on his headstone reads:

“DULCE ET DECORUM EST PRO PATRIA MORI”

Lieutenant Reginald Anthony LYON, Army Cyclist Corps, West Riding Divisional Cyclist Company, seconded to 2/6th (Cyclist) Battalion Norfolk Regiment, attached to 1/7th Battalion West Riding Regiment, is buried in Plot II, Row H, Grave 17.

He was killed in action in the Nieupoort area on 13th August 1917, aged 27.

Lt Lyon is commemorated on the Cheltenham War Memorial and on the Cheltenham Grammar School War Memorial.

He left a widow, Mrs Emily Ann Lyon, who resided at 73 Naunton Crescent, Cheltenham.

Lt Lyon’s original battlefield grave marker is now located at Cheltenham Cemetery.

Reginald Anthony Lyon

1890 – 1917

2nd Lieutenant John Constantine NUTHALL, 14th Company Machine Gun Corps, is buried in Plot I, Row A, Grave 2.

He was killed in action in the Nieupoort area of Belgium on 13th July 1917, aged 28.

2Lt Nuthall is commemorated on the St Stephen’s Church War Memorial.

He resided in East Grinstead before the war and he left a widow, Mrs Clara Evelyn Nuthall, who resided at Melbourne House, Pembroke.

Notes:

1. With grateful thanks to Mr Steve Morse for allowing use of his photos above, and for placing a remembrance cross on Lt Lyon’s grave in July 2007. Steve is acknowledged here.

Page last updated: 1st February 2018

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