Regimental Sergeant Major (WO.I) Edward James King

Ypres Town Cemetery is located 1 kilometre east of Ieper town centre, on the Zonnebeekseweg, connecting Ieper to Menen on the N345. From Ieper town centre the Zonnebeekseweg is located via Torhoutstraat and right onto Basculestraat. Basculestraat ends at a main crossroads, and the Zonnebeekseweg is the first left turning. The cemetery itself is located 300 metres along the Zonnebeekseweg on the right hand side of the road. Ypres (Ieper) was, from October, 1914, to the summer of 1918, the centre of a Salient held by the British (and for some months by the French) forces in Belgium. From April, 1915, it was bombarded and destroyed more completely than any other town of its size on the Western front. It was surrounded by ramparts and a moat; and from these, on its Eastern side, issued the road to Menin. The Menin Gate has been rebuilt as a Memorial to some of those who fell in the Salient and have no known graves; and close to the Menin Gate is the Town Cemetery, in which the British forces began to bury their dead in October, 1914. Ypres Town Cemetery was used by the British forces until February, 1915, and once again in 1918. There are now nearly 150, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. The British plots covers an area of 493 square metres.