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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?
Ziekebeemdenstraat, 2800 Mechelen
 
View on map

History

The oldest part of this cemetery dates back to 1860. Extensions towards the Antwerp-Brussels railway line are established in 1880 and 1910, and give the cemetery its current surface. The oldest part more or less follows a checkerboard pattern, the newer parts do not follow this layout as much. 
Mechelen was an important garrison town and the cemetery therefore counts many graves of military dignitaries. The municipal cemetery also contains military honours courts for both the First and Second World Wars. 

 

Casualties

311 First World War (71 unidentified) - 28 Second World War

 

Description

The military cemetery is divided into three large sections.
The military honours court contains the graves of soldiers killed in action around Mechelen as the fighting rages in 1914. The graves lie in parallel rows with the tombstones positioned back to back. Central in the plot stands the tribute monument, designed by Mechelen native Boudewijn Tuerlinckx and inaugurated on 18 July 1929. It consists of a reclining man surrounded by two women and a child symbolising the mourning relatives. 
The second - municipal - part contains the graves of Mechelen natives who died on the various battlefields. They lie under a bluestone tombstone of Mechelen model at the edge of the military honours court. 
The third honours court is municipal as well and contains the graves of the Mechelen servicemen who fell during the Second World War and the Korean War.