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Attention: the War Dead Register only lists Belgian fallen soldiers.  
The War Dead Register provides basic personal information (name, first name, date and place of birth, etc.) and does not contain military files (giving a complete overview of the military career). According to date of birth the files are kept either by the Royal Military Museum or by the Defence archives service. The files safeguarded at the Military Museum can be consulted on site (Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels). The files kept up till now by Defence are currently transferred to the General State Archives.
The date on which they will be once again available has not yet been determined.   

 

Archives of the Royal Military Museum 

Documentation Centre 
Parc du Cinquantenaire 3
1000 Brussels
E-mail : cdoc.klm-mra@warheritage.be   
Website: www.warheritage.be

Cemetery details

Where?
Keiemdorpstraat, 8600 Keiem
 
View on map

History

Once the Antwerp stronghold is lost the Belgians retreat behind the Yser, more precisely behind the railway embankment between Nieuwpoort and Dixmude. On 22 October the Germans cross the Yser at the bend of Tervate, in between two Belgian divisions; they establish a bridgehead and attack the Belgians. Belgian grenadiers and infantrymen launch heroic, but fruitless, actions in the swampy plains and fail to push back the Germans. The battle claims hundreds of casualties. 
The Keiem military cemetery is established after the war and functions as an assembly cemetery for the soldiers fallen between 18 October and 11 November 1914, i.e. during the Battle of the Yser, and who have been left behind or who have only received a field grave. The majority of the deceased are transferred from the villages of Keiem, Beerst, Leke, Pervijze and Stuivekenskerke, all very evocative names in the Battle of the Yser. The reburial of these victims takes more than ten years. It is therefore not surprising that over 60% of the graves bear no name. 

 

Casualties

591 First World War (364 unidentified)

 

Description

The cemetery is diamond-shaped and measures 75 metres by 75. Paths starting in each corner lead up to a central square with flagpole. All graves are of the Belgian bluestone model, with bronze plaques. They are positioned back to back in parallel rows separated by boxwood hedges. Two bluestone pillars flank the wrought-iron entrance gate in the western corner of the cemetery. Low hedges line the venue.