History
To guarantee the safety of the Belgian Field Hospital (initially set up by the British, but run by Belgian staff as of May 1916) military authorities decides to move it from the College in Veurne to care home De Clep in Hoogstade. As Veurne is under German fire repositioning indeed becomes mandatory. However, military hospitals invariably generate bodies and the first burials soon take place in a field behind the Hoogstade church. Some 1,300 soldiers die at the hospital and a journey to the cemetery becomes a daily routine.
By the end of hostilities in 1918, 972 Belgian, 150 British and a number of French and German servicemen are buried here. During the reconstruction in 1924-1925, some of the casualties are exhumed, but others from the Hoogstade area are added. When the Reninge military cemetery is closed in 1968, 117 bodies are transferred to Hoogstade.
Today the cemetery counts 825 graves, including twenty British. A mere seventeen unidentified soldiers are buried in Hoogstade, a small number when compared to other military cemeteries. Six graves are marked by heldenhuldezerken (a Flemish word designating a Celtic cross with a Flemish motto, placed by the Heldenhulde committee and created during the First World War by Flemish intellectual circles to honour fallen Flemish soldiers, as a substitute for the official marking “Mort pour la patrie” (Fallen for the nation) in French).
Casualties
805 Belgians First World War (17 unidentified) - 20 British First World War
Description
The cemetery is rectangular in shape and lined by hedges along the sides and at the rear. A wall built in the typical yellow brick often used in the Westhoek reconstruction process borders the street. The headstones are arranged in long length-wise rows.
The cemetery is planted with white rose bushes and yellow daffodils.