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Tyne Cot Memorial

The Tyne Cot Memorial is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient.  The names of two men from Badsey appear on the memorial:  Private Arthur Henry Logan McDonald, who died on 16th August 1917, and Private Walter Hawkes, who died on 8th October 1917.  Private McDonald is listed in the section Panel 154 to 159 and 163A and Private Hawkes in the section Panel 23 to 28 and 163A).

The Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which is located 9 kilometres north-east of Ieper town centre.

The Salient (roughly from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war) was formed during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary Force succeeded in securing the town before the onset of winter, pushing the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge.  The Second Battle of Ypres began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines north of Ypres.  A Third Battle of Ypres followed in 1917, coming to a close in November of that year with the capture of Passchendaele.  It was during this period that Private Hawkes lost his life.

The battles of the Ypres Salient claimed many lives on both sides and it quickly became clear that the commemoration of members of the Commonwealth forces with no known grave would have to be divided between several different sites.  The Tyne Cot Memorial bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known.  The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F V Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20th June 1927.