Flanders Battlefields
 

Passchendaele Archives

Currently the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 are carrying out The Passchendaele Archives project to record all that gave their lives in the Battle of Passchendaele 1917.

A copy of the Statement from The Passchendaele Archives

Passchendaele 1917 was one of the great conflicts of the First World War. Hundred days of heavy fighting resulted in over half a million Allied casualties for but a gain of only a few miles. The dead comprised mainly, British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and South African troops.

A visit to a military cemetery is always an inspiring and emotional experience but the fact remains that the dead and missing have only headstones and memorials whereon they are remembered. In the Museum we have created a living memorial where we are endeavoring to put faces and stories to the names of the dead and missing by building a personal record with photographs, family documentation and information from military sources.

To avoid a duplication of the excellent database of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission we will only create a file if a photograph is available and only if the man concerned lost his life between 12th, July and 15th November, 1917

 

Aims

1. To build a personal archive of thousands of files which May be researched at the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917.

2. To create a database with the extracts of all files and extensive research facilities to provide for example the exact location of death on trench maps.

3. To select records of 100 men to be stored at the new Visitors Centre shortly to be erected near Tyne Cot Cemetery; one for each day of the battle.

4. The composition of a book on Passchendaele 1917 based upon the stories of the fallen.

They need your help !

Did a relative of yours fight in Passchendaele 1917?  Did he give his life ?  If you have a photograph, letters, personal papers and reminiscences of family members, please contact them. (contact details below)

They do not desire any originals, a good copy is sufficient.  If you are not able to copy or can your possessions at a high resolution they are willing to undertake the task for you.  Donations of original items for the museum are of course always gratefully received.

In return for your co-operation they will try to find out what exactly happened to your relative.  You will receive a copy of a trench map with the approx date and place where he was killed or mortally wounded.  With this comes a short report based on the ward diaries of his unit.

The Passchendaele Archives is a project of the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 which started in 2005. 

The Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 is housed in the Zonnebeke Chateau, on the road from Ypres to Tyne Cot Cemetery, Nr. Passchendaele where you can find a complete survey of the fighting in Ypres Salient, focusing on Passchendaele in 1917.  A Unique experience is the reconstruction of a deep dugout with underground headquarters, communication post, dressing station and accommodation for men.

Contact details :
The Passchendaele Archives
Ieperstraat 5
8980 Zonnebeke
Belgium
e-amail : archives@passchendaele.be
web site: http://www.passchendaele.be
Telephone:  00 32 51 77 04 41
Fax:         00 32 51 78 07 50

 

Tyne cot Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery in the World. The burial record for Tyne Cot –
6 VC’s, 8,366 Named Graves, 11,976 un-named graves and the wall recording 34,870 names of missing with no known grave and this is still being added to. 

 

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