(Etaples cemetery)
During the First World War, the area around Etaples was the scene of immense concentrations of
Commonwealth reinforcement camps and hospitals. It was remote from attack, except from aircraft,
and accessible by railway from both the northern or the southern battlefields. In 1917, 100,000
troops were camped among the sand dunes and the hospitals, which included eleven general, one
stationary, four Red Cross hospitals and a convalescent depot, which could deal with 22,000
wounded or sick. In September 1919, ten months after the Armistice, three hospitals and the
Q.M.A.A.C. convalescent depot remained.
The cemetery contains 10,771 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, the earliest dating
from May 1915. 35 of these burials are unidentified. The cemetery, the largest Commission
cemetery in France, was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.