Godezonne Farm Cemetery

Godezonne Farm Cemetery is a small Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground tucked away in the quiet, rural landscape of the Heuvelland municipality, southwest of Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium. It sits along the Kriekstraat, a road branching off the Kemmelseweg, surrounded by the gently rolling farmland typical of this corner of West Flanders — ground that, over a century ago, was fought over during some of the deadliest engagements of the First World War.

Where does the name come from and how did the cemetery start?

The cemetery takes its name from Godezonne Farm, in whose garden it was originally established. The first burials were made here by soldiers of the 2nd Royal Scots and the 4th Middlesex between February and May 1915, a period when the front line around Ieper and the Kemmel hills was still hardening into the trench stalemate that would define the war in this sector. Three more burials followed in 1916. The cemetery only reached its present size after the Armistice, when remains were brought in from a wide stretch of ground north and east of Kemmel, consolidating many smaller, scattered burial sites from across the fighting area.

Who is buried here?

Godezonne Farm Cemetery holds 79 First World War burials, of which 44 are unidentified — a proportion that reflects how brutal and confused the fighting around the Ypres Salient often was, with heavy shelling and repeatedly contested ground making it difficult to identify the fallen afterwards. The majority of those buried are British soldiers, but the cemetery also contains graves of servicemen from South Africa, Australia, and Canada, a small but telling sign of how broadly the forces of the British Empire were drawn into the defence of this part of Flanders.

What does the cemetery look like?

The layout and design of the cemetery were the work of architect William Harrison Cowlishaw, one of the designers who worked with the Imperial War Graves Commission (the forerunner of today's CWGC) to give war cemeteries across Belgium and France a consistent, dignified character. That shared design language is visible here in the neat rows of uniform white headstones, closely mown lawns, and restrained planting that together create a place of quiet reflection set against open farmland.

Symbolically, the ground itself was granted to Britain in perpetuity by King Albert I of the Belgians, in recognition of the sacrifice made by soldiers of the British Empire in the defence and liberation of Belgium during the war. This same gesture underlies most CWGC cemeteries in Belgium and France, which is why they are technically treated as Commonwealth-administered ground even though they lie within Belgian or French territory.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly is the cemetery located? About 7 km southwest of the centre of Ieper, on the Kriekstraat, off the Kemmelseweg, within the municipality of Heuvelland.

Is the site wheelchair accessible? Yes, wheelchair access is possible via the main entrance.

How many people are buried here? 79 First World War casualties, 44 of whom remain unidentified.

Is it worth combining a visit with other nearby war memorials? Yes — Godezonne Farm Cemetery lies within the wider Kemmel Hill and Ypres Salient battle area, where numerous other CWGC cemeteries and memorials connected to the fighting around Ieper can be found within a short drive, making the surrounding region one of the most significant First World War remembrance landscapes in Europe.