Loos British Cemetery Extension
- Country France
- Total identified casualties 0 Find these casualties
- Region Pas de Calais
- Identified casualties from First World War
- GPS Coordinates Latitude: 50.45223, Longitude: 2.79996
Location information
Loos (Loos-en-Gohelle) is a village to the north of the road from Lens to Bethune. From Lens, take the N43 towards Bethune. Arriving at Loos, turn right at CWGC sign post. The Extension adjoins Loos British Cemetery, which is about 1 kilometre from Loos Church in the southern part of the village. The Extension may be accessed through Loos British Cemetery, or by the Loos British Cemetery Extension entrance near to the Hill 70 Memorial.
History information
Loos British Cemetery Extension was opened by H.R.H. The Princess Royal on 26 September 2024, and is only the second new cemetery established by the CWGC since the work to construct the Second World War cemeteries and Memorials was completed.
The land on which the Extension has been established has been acquired by the French government and granted in perpetuity to the CWGC for the purpose of the burial of war casualties.
The cemetery was designed to be in keeping with CWGC’s First World War cemeteries in France and constructed using similar materials and sustainable building practices. This included the re-use of stones removed from the original boundary wall to make the entrance between the Extension and the main cemetery, which now form the pillars of the new Loos British Cemetery Extension entrance.
The Extension is a concentration cemetery with capacity for 1,200 graves, arranged in six Plots. It will provide a fitting place of burial for those Commonwealth casualties still being recovered today from the former battlefields across France. Until each area of the Extension is required for burials, the Plots will be sewn with a variety of wild flower meadow plants, including those representing Remembrance. The first burials, made in Rows A and B of Plot XXIII, were mainly those of unidentified casualties likely to have been killed during the early days of the Battle of Loos in September 1915 and recovered in the vicinity of the cemetery during construction works.