Imperial War Graves Commission Index To Cemetery And Memorial Registers Of Those Who Fell In The Great War – A Short Sample List of Some French and Belgian Cemetery Code Numbers

After the country code, the cemetery code number lists for each country begin at 1. Each list is divided by letter and then placed in alphabetical order, so for example the Belgian Country Code is 20 and the first five cemeteries listed under A are:

Cemetery Code No

Abeele Aerodrome Military Cemetery                                                                                           1

Adinkerke Churchyard Extension                                                                                                   2

Adinkerke Military Cemetery                                                                                                           3

Aelbeke Churchyard                                                                                                                           4

Aeroplane Cemetery Ypres                                                                                                               5 …

At the end of each letter section (A etc.) some numbers were left unused ready for the addition of new cemeteries under the particular letter. In the Belgium case the code numbers (including unused numbers) run from 1 to 677. In the case of France (Country Code 52) with a larger number of cemeteries the number run from 1 to 2599. However the largest number of codes can be seen in England (Country Code 48) with the codes listed by order of county and then alphabetically, so for example Tilney St. Lawrence Churchyard has a Cemetery Code of 4744. Tilney has only two WW1 burials and is a good example how of why the United Kingdom and Ireland use so many more codes than required for France and Belgium, the answer being that there are multiplicity of sites with small numbers of war graves compared to the generally larger cemeteries of the Western Front.

A small number of Cemetery Codes for well-known cemeteries in Belgium and a sample list from the far greater number of French cemeteries follows:

Belgium (No 20):

Cemetery Code No

Cement House Cemetery Langemark                                                                                       110

Hooge Crater Cemetery                                                                                                                261

Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery Popperinghe                                                                         343

Sanctuary Wood Cemetery                                                                                                          531

Tyne Cot Cemetery                                                                                                                        591

Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery                                                                                               614

Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery                                                                                      615

Ypres Reservoir Cemetery                                                                                                           663

Ypres Town Cemetery                                                                                                                   664

Ypres Town Cemetery Extension                                                                                                665

 

France (No 52):

Cemetery Code No

Albert Communal Cemetery Extension                                                                                    28

Albert French National Cemetery                                                                                              29

Bailleul Communal Cemetery (Nord)                                                                                      134

Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension (Nord)                                                                   135

Bapaume Australian Cemetery                                                                                                 147

Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery                                                                                              371

Calais Southern Cemetery                                                                                                         382

Etaples Military Cemetery                                                                                                         688

Terlincthun British Cemetery                                                                                                 2006

Thiepval Anglo-French Cemetery                                                                                          2054

Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery                                                                                   2203

Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery Extension                                                                2204

Y Ravine Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel                                                                                  2243