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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?
Sint-Maartensstraat, 8640 Westvleteren
 
View on map

History

The French already establish the cemetery in 1914. The Belgians take over this sector in the early months of war, and in 1915 a Belgian medical post is set up in the Westvleteren girls’ school. The village is situated along one of the many routes to the hospitals in the rear, but countless victims pass away then and there. The headstones mention the casualties’ dates of demise and the graves are lined up in that order. When the Westhoek is cleared after the war, many victims are reburied in Westvleteren; others are transferred to their former places of residence. 
The cemetery becomes the property of the Ministry of Defence in 1923, and then acquires the appearance it still has today. At that moment in time the typical Belgian tombstones replace the hodgepodge of markings used up till then. When the Reninge cemetery is closed in 1968, 123 bodies are moved to Westvleteren. 

 

Casualties

1,206 First World War (33 unidentified)

 

Description

The cemetery is rectangular in shape and has a red brick wall with bluestone copings along the front. A central pathway leads to the rear. The graves are arranged in parallel rows and have rose bushes in front of them. Yellow daffodils between the rows provide a colourful touch in spring.