The Alpha and the Omega: St. Symphorien Military Cemetery
The St. Symphorien Military Cemetery at Mons in Belgium is the alpha and omega of British cemeteries on the Western Front, as this place of 513 burials contains the graves of both the first and the last casualties of the British and Imperial forces in the First World War.
Private John Parr, 4th battalion Middlesex Regiment, was killed on 21 August 1914 by German infantry advancing in the opening exchanges of what became the battle of Mons. Cast a glance across the grass pathway in front of Parr’s grave and you will see the burial place of the last British casualty, Private George Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, killed on 11 November 1918 at 9.30am, just ninety minutes before the armistice came into effect.
The very last soldier of the British and Imperial forces to be killed is also buried close by. Agonisingly, Private George Price of the 28th battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force was killed at 10.58am. Two minutes later the guns fell silent in France and Belgium.
These three graves sit within a cemetery that is remarkable for its complexity and beauty, even by the high standards of the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission. The Arts and Crafts architect, W.H. Cowlishaw, who was given the task of designing this cemetery found that he was engaging with a very particular site, for it originated as a German cemetery.
The ground was donated to the Germans by the Belgian biologist and horticulturalist, Jean Houzeau de Lehaie, on the condition that the Germans inter and mark properly both sets of combatants from the battle of Mons. The Germans agreed and then spent much time landscaping and transforming the site into a typical German waldfriedhof (forest cemetery) of discrete sections, each plot secluded from its neighbour by planting and the use of many levels. The German graves were given fine granite headstones in three different designs, whereas the British received simple wooden crosses.
At the entrance to the cemetery an obelisk was erected stating clearly that the cemetery contained the graves of German and British soldiers. Two smaller obelisks were placed in the centre of circular plots containing the British graves (one of which mistakenly accredited the Middlesex Regiment with the royal prefix). Although it was rare to see British graves within German cemeteries given such lavish treatment, the richness of the landscaping and memorialisation of their own troops was common in the cemeteries the Germans erected behind their lines. This demonstrates their belief that such sites were the permanent markers of the newly expanded Hohenzollern empire. The cemetery was formally inaugurated in an impressive ceremony on 6 September 1917.
Given the extensiveness of the German work, Cowlishaw had a delicate task on his hands when it came to ‘claiming’ it as an IWGC cemetery. Sensibly and sensitively, rather than try a radical rewrite, Cowlishaw decided to work gently and accept much of what he saw as permanent, and that subtle refinement was the best way to bring the IWGC’s house style into play. His first decision was to leave all German memorials and headstones as they were, thus ensuring organic development, not simply obliterating the past. He also decided to leave the entrance in the same place, resulting in visitors climbing a set of granite steps, so different from the IWGC’s usual Portland and Euville stone and red brick. From the entrance, the original cemetery path was also retained, leading in a right dogleg up to the mound on which the first German obelisk is situated. But the axis to the entrance provided Cowlishaw with the opportunity to make an alternative statement, by creating another mound slightly to the left of the German obelisk and slightly lower on which he placed the Cross of Sacrifice. In terms of sightlines from the cemetery entrance, this situated the cross in the direct line of vision, and also made it the hub of the cemetery from which everything radiates. A standard element of a Commission cemetery was thus given prominence, but within the original design.
Such was Cowlishaw’s degree of sensitivity to the existing cemetery that he then left the original paths intact, meaning that visitors must first come past the main German plot before making their way round to the various British plots. The progression is like a wander through the ornamental garden of a fine country house, as it is a place of glimpses through foliage and wider reveals of landscape intersected with the snaking path that leads down to the British obelisk framed by a semi-circular bench. Plonk down on this lovely bench and you might expect to see the Cottingley fairies dance out of the hedges into this enchanted garden. And the enchanted garden effect was another way of ensuring the Commission’s stamp. The planting plan for St. Symphorien was as rich, profuse and charming as any Surrey garden dreamt up in the fertile imaginations of Gertude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens with some fifty plants, trees, shrubs and flowers included.
As with all Commission cemeteries, the graves are the focus, but this focus is achieved by the detail of the frame provided by the overall cemetery design.
To visit this cemetery (and many others!) with me see below for more information about booking a guided battlefield visit.
