Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais

Montreuil

Coat of arms

Montreuil

Location within Hauts-de-France region

Montreuil

Coordinates: 50°27′53″N 1°45′47″E / 50.4648°N 1.763°ECoordinates: 50°27′53″N 1°45′47″E / 50.4648°N 1.763°E

Country

Communauté de communes du Montreuillois

Government

• Mayor

Bruno Béthouart

Area¹

2.85 km² (1.10 sq mi)

Population (2006)²

2,498

• Density

880/km² (2,300/sq mi)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

INSEE/Postal code

62588 / 62170

Elevation

2–43 m (6.6–141.1 ft)

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

²Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Montreuil or Montreuil-sur-Mer (French pronunciation: [mɔ̃tʁœj syʁ mɛʁ]) is a sub-prefecture in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is located on the Canche river, not far from Étaples. The sea, however, is now some distance away.

It is surrounded by medieval ramparts, part of the reinforcement work of the famed French military engineer Vauban from his fortification of northern France in the 17th century.

Population (1999): 2,688 inhabitants for the city, 21,603 inhabitants for the canton and 99,288 inhabitants for the arrondissement.

Montreuil was the headquarters of the British Army in France during the First World War from March 1916 until it closed in April 1919. The military academy providing excellent facilities for GHQ.

Montreuil was chosen as G.H.Q. for a wide variety of reasons. It was on a main road from London to Paris—the two chief centres of the campaign—though not on a main railway line, which would have been an inconvenience. It was not an industrial town and so avoided the complications alike of noise and of a possibly troublesome civil population. It was from a telephone and motor transit point of view in a very central situation to serve the needs of a Force which was based on Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne, Dieppe, and Havre, and had its front stretching from the Somme to beyond the Belgian frontier.

Haig staff member Sir Frank Fox OBE wrote a critically acclaimed contemporary account of the headquarters in 1916, originally published under the pseudonym "GSO", called G.H.Q. (Montreuil-sur-Mer) His work in the QMG's Directorate in the final offensive against the German Army resulted in his being awarded the OBE (Military) He was also Mentioned in Despatches.

General Haig was quartered in the nearby Château de Beaurepaire, two miles (3.2 kilometres) SE of the town on the D138. There is a plaque on the château wall to commemorate the event.

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Wikipedia