Person:John Whitbread (7)

1891 - With parents living in Wakes Lane, Pulham St Mary the Virgin, Norfolk. Aged 1, born at Stowe Nine Churches, Northamptonshire.

1901 - With parents, living in Nethergate Street, Clare, Suffolk. Aged 11, born at Stowe, Northamptonshire.

From CWGC: Name: WHITBREAD, JOHN WILLETT; Initials: J W; Nationality: United Kingdom; Rank: Private; Regiment: East Surrey Regiment; Unit Text: 2nd Bn; Age: 25; Date of Death: 28/05/1915; Service No: 2689; Additional information: Son of John and Grace Eleanor Whitbread, of Stowe, Northamptonshire; Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead; Grave/Memorial Reference: I. I. 8A; Cemetery: WIMEREUX COMMUNAL CEMETERY.

Wimereux is a small town situated about 5 kilometres north of Boulogne. 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. Wimereux Communal Cemetery contains 2,847, Commonwealth burials of the First World War, two of them unidentified. 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.