In Memory of

JOHN GLYNNE REES

Private
34079
7th Bn., South Lancashire Regiment
who died on
Tuesday, 12th September 1916. Age 23.

Additional Information: Son of David John and Elizabeth Mary Rees, of 41, Oakfield St., Roath, Cardiff.

Commemorative Information

Cemetery: TROIS ARBRES CEMETERY, STEENWERCK, Nord, France
Grave Reference/Panel Number: II. F. 16.
Location: Steenwerck is a village on the D77 about 6 kilometres south-east of Bailleul, and to the east of the road from Bailleul to Estaires. The Cemetery is situated to the north-east midway between the village and the main road from Bailleul to Armentieres and north of the recently built motorway.
Historical Information: Steenwerck village remained unharmed during the greater part of the War; but on the 10th April 1918, in the Battles of the Lys, it was captured by the enemy, and it remained in their possession until the beginning of October. The site was chosen for the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station in July 1916, and the original Cemetery (Plot 1 and the earlier rows of Plot II) was made and used by that hospital until April 1918. Trois-Arbres passed into German hands a day later than Steenwerck, after a rearguard defence by the 34th Division. A few further burials were made in the Cemetery after the German retirement at the end of 1918; and after the Armistice graves were brought into it from the battlefields of Steenwerck, Nieppe, Bailleul and Neuve-Eglise. There are now nearly 2,000, 1914-18 war casaulties commemorated in this site. Of these, over 400 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to nine soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Canada, known or believed to be buried among them. Certain graves in Plot III (indicated by the words on the headstones "Buried near this spot") are identified as a group but not individually. The Cemetery covers an area of 5,935 square metres and is enclosed by a concrete curb. The following graveyards were concentrated into Trois-Arbres Cemetery:-. DOUANE CEMETERY, NEUVE-EGLISE, at the Custom House on the road from Neuve-Eglise to Nieppe, containing the graves of 15 soldiers from Canada and four from the United Kingdom who fell in 1915-16. FORTRIE FARM CEMETERY, NEWE-EGLISE, 1.6 kilometres West of the hamlet of Le Romarin, containing the graves of 27 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in November and December 1914. FACTORY CEMETERY, BAC-ST. MAUR. This was a row of graves in Steenwerck commune, in the angle formed by the river Lys, the road from Bac-St. Maur to Croix-du-Bac, and Edwards's Linen Factory. In it were buried 20 soldiers from the United Kingdom, one from India and seven Germans.