William Henry Tonks

Other Events and Attributes:

• Miltary Service: Abt 1917; 14th Bn., Royal Warwickshire Regiment (B Company)
• Service Number: Abt 1917; Lance Corporal 4072

Notes:

In Memory of
WILLIAM HENRY TONKS
Son of Arthur William and Ada Tonks, of Atherstone, Warwickshire.
Lance Corporal 4072 " B " Coy. 14th Bn., Royal Warwickshire Regiment
who died on Sunday, 20th May 1917. Age 20.

Commemorative Information
Cemetery: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY, Pas de Calais, France
Grave Reference/ Panel Number: XXV. R. 6A.

Location: Etaples is a town about 27 kilometres south of Boulogne. The Military Cemetery is to the north of the town, on the west side of the road to Boulogne.

Historical Information: During the 1914-18 war, the neighbourhood of the Cemetery became the scene of immense concentrations of British reinforcement camps and of British hospitals. It was remote from attack, except from aircraft, and it was accessible by railway from either 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 and four Red Cross Hospitals and a Convalescent Depot) 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 earliest burial in the Cemetery dates from May 1915. There are now nearly 11,000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site and over 100 from the 1939-45 War. The cemetery covers an area of 59,049 square metres. The graves lie below three terraces, the midmost of which carries the War Stone and two pylons, and the highest is dominated by the Cross.