Location 9 – Norfolk CWGC Cemetery

	Click and drag to move the map. Use the slider to zoom in/out.

Directions – Leaving Lochnagar Crater, return down the road towards La Boisselle, then at the junction with the cream-coloured house on the corner take a sharp left for Bécourt. Continue through the hamlet in the direction of Bécordel-Bécourt. Shortly you will see Norfolk CWGC Cemetery nestled in the narrow valley to the left of the road.

Historical Notes – Norfolk Cemetery was begun by the 1st Norfolks in August 1915 and now contains 547 graves including 226 unknown soldiers. One of the notable graves here is that of Major Stewart Walter Loudoun-Shand VC who won his Victoria Cross on 1st July nearby at Fricourt. His citation in the London Gazette reported that:

"When his company attempted to climb the parapet to attack the enemy's trenches, they were met by very fierce machine-gun fire, which temporarily stopped their progress. Major Loudoun-Shand immediately leapt on the parapet, helped the men over it, and encouraged them in every way until he fell mortally wounded. Even then he insisted on being propped up in the trench, and went on encouraging the non commissioned officers and men until he died."

Sheltered by a wooded slope to the east and just 1,000 yards from the German frontline, this narrow valley became a key interchange for communications trenches. Gun pits for artillery were also dug here, well protected from German shelling.