Tyne Cot Cemetery
| Tyne Cot | |
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| Commonwealth War Graves Commission | |
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| Used for those deceased 1917–1918 | |
| Established | October 1917 |
| Location |
50°53′13″N 02°59′53″E / 50.88694°N 2.99806°ECoordinates: 50°53′13″N 02°59′53″E / 50.88694°N 2.99806°E near Passendale, West Flanders, Belgium |
| Designed by | Sir Herbert Baker |
| Total burials | 11,965, of which 8,369 are unnamed |
| Unknown burials | 101 |
| Burials by nation | |
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| Burials by war | |
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World War I: 11,954
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1914 – Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the armies of the British Empire who fell in Ypres Salient, but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death – 1918
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| Statistics source: CWGC | |
Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the First World War in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. It is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any war. The cemetery and its surrounding memorial are located outside of Passchendale, near Zonnebeke in Belgium.
The name "Tyne Cot" is said to come from the Northumberland Fusiliers, seeing a resemblance between the many German concrete pill boxes on this site and typical Tyneside workers' cottages (Tyne cots). Tyne Cot CWGC Cemetery lies on a broad rise in the landscape which overlooks the surrounding countryside. As such, the location was strategically important to both sides fighting in the area. The concrete shelters which still stand in various parts of the cemetery were part of a fortified position of the German Flandern I Stellung, which played an important role in the area during the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917.
On 4 October 1917, the area where Tyne Cot CWGC Cemetery is now located was captured by the 3rd Australian Division and the New Zealand Division and two days later a cemetery for British and Canadian war dead was begun. The cemetery was recaptured by German forces on 13 April 1918 and was finally liberated by Belgian forces on 28 September.
After the Armistice in November 1918, the cemetery was greatly enlarged from its original 343 graves by concentrating graves from the battlefields, smaller cemeteries nearby and from Langemark.
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