Wednesday 20 November 2013

Stonefall

Stonefall cemetery near Harrogate is a dedicated Commonwealth war graves cemetery . Most of the burials are RAF  ,and almost two thirds of those are Canadian . The graves are as always beautifully maintained by war graves staff and this cemetery contains the grave of one of the local war graves commissions staff ,also buried within the cemetery are other commonwealth service men and 1 german and four Russians ,most of the buried passed away in the now demolished  local hospital after suffering combat wounds although there are at least 2 RAF crews that died in wartime crashes in the local hill sides .There are also a small number of ww1 graves and plaques and memorials to a number of war dead whose graves are in local grave yards that the war graves commission cannot attend and to service men who were cremated rather than buried.




This grave stone is a marker for E.Audsley who was buried in a local church yard  out of care of the Commonwealth War Graves commission , unfortunately his original marker ,grave and body were all destroyed during "improvements" to the church recently .






whilst there we had almost constant fly pasts by the RAF 

I am always amazed by the number of graves maintained for foreign troops 

Also some make me wonder how the particular person ended up buried in England 

These three Russian soldiers are resting together.

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