wilsona

WILSON, ALEXANDRE

This page is to Commemorate Alexandre Wilson, who I am researching. He married a Dover girl.

R.A.M.C

WILSON, ALEXANDRE. 8397. Private. Royal Army Medical Corps, 9th Field Amb. Died of wounds: 17/10/1917. Age 32. Son of James Wilson, of Edinburgh. Husband of Elizabeth Wilson, of 47, Maison Dieu Rd. Dover. Kent. Born: Edinburgh. Enlisted: Gosport, Portsmouth. Cemetery: Wimereux Communal Cemetery. Ref: VI. D. 27.

Alexandre`s British War Medal

The 9^th Field Ambulance were with the Guards at Passchendaele from the 12^th October 1917, so I think Alexandre was wounded their and then taken back to Wimereux (hospital) in

France

where he died of his wounds.

Also buried in the same Cemetery is, Lt. Col. John McCrae, who wrote the poem “ In Flanders Fields “

WIMEREUX COMMUNAL CEMETERY

Wimereux is a small town situated about 5 kilometres north of Boulogne.France.

Wimereux was the headquarters of the Queen Mary's Army Auxilliary Corps during the First World War and in 1919 it became the General Headquarters of the British Army. From October 1914 onwards, Boulogne and Wimereux formed an important hospital centre and until June 1918, the medical units at Wimereux used the communal cemetery for burials, the south-eastern half having been set aside for Commonwealth graves, although a few burial were also made among the civilian graves. By June 1918, this half of the cemetery was filled, and subsequent burials from the hospitals at Wimereux were made in the new military cemetery at Terlincthun. During the Second World War, British Rear Headquarters moved from Boulogne to Wimereux for a few days in May 1940, prior to the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk. Thereafter, Wimereux was in German hands and the German Naval Headquarters were situated on the northern side of the town. After D-Day, as Allied forces moved northwards, the town was shelled from Cap Griz-Nez, and was re-taken by the Canadian 1st Army on 22 September 1944. Wimereux Communal Cemetery contains 2,847, Commonwealth burials of the First World War, two of them unidentified. Buried among them is Lt.-Col. John McCrae, author of the poem "In Flanders Fields." There are also five French and a plot of 170 German war graves. The cemetery also contains 14 Second World War burials, six of them unidentified. The Commonwealth section was designed by Charles Holden. Because of the sandy nature of the soil, the headstones lie flat upon the graves.