PUISIEUX (or Puisieux-au-Mont) is a commune in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais, containing the villages of Puisieux and Serre. The road from Mailly-Maillet to Serre and Puisieux, in June, 1916, entered No Man's Land about 1,214 metres South-West of Serre, and the 31st and 4th Divisions attacked North and South of this road on the 1st July, 1916. Parties of the 31st Division reached Serre; but the attack failed, and the 3rd and 31 st Divisions attacked again, without success, on the 11th November. On the 24th February, 1917, the Germans evacuated Serre, and on the following morning the 22nd Manchesters entered it.

In the spring of 1917, the battlefields of the Ancre were cleared by the V Corps and a number of cemeteries made, three of which are now named from the Serre Road.

On the 25th March, 1918, Serre was evacuated by the British, and the cemeteries fell into enemy hands; but on the following 14th August it was in turn evacuated by tile Germans.

The village of Serre has been " adopted," with Bapaume and Puisieux, by the City of Sheffield.

SERRE ROAD CEMETERY No. 1 is 910 metres West of the village, on the North side of the road. It is in two Departments and three communes, being divided practically equally between Puisieux and Hebuterne (Pas-de-Calais) and Beaumont-Hamel, (Somme). It was made by the V Corps in May, 1917, when Plot 1, Row A to G, were filled; but it was greatly enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration of 2,054 graves (for the most part, of 1916) from the battlefields of the Ancre and the Somme.

The cemetery now contains the graves of 2,116 soldiers ( and sailors and marines or the Royal Naval Division) from the United Kingdom, 147 from Australia, 18 from Canada, 27 from New Zealand, six from South Africa and one from Newfoundland; those of 71 French soldiers ( who fell mainly in July, 1915) and two of the United States Army have been removed to other Cemeteries. The unnamed graves are 1,728 in number, or nearly three quarters of the whole; and special memorials are erected to ten soldiers from the United Kingdom, known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of twelve soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

The cemetery covers an area of 6,569 square metres.

The Register records particulars of 2,428 War Dead, existing or commemorated in the cemetery.

Ninety one metres West of the cemetery, is the SERRE-HEBUTERNE FRENCH NATIONAL CEMETERY made in 1920-21 to receive the bodies of the dead of two French Infantry Regiments, the 243rd and the 327th (both raised at Lille), who fell in the Combat at Hebuterne on the 10th-13th June, 1915. It rises in terraces, carrying a bronze memorial in relief. In June 1933 this cemetery, having been used for the reburial of other French bodies found on the Somme battlefields, was formally handed over to the French State. It now contains 817 bodies, including 247 unidentified.

The Battle Memorials of the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers (3rd Division) and the2th York and Lancaster Regiment (3 r st Division) are in the immediate neighbourhood.

The following were among the burial grounds from which British graves were concentrated to Serre Road Cemetery No. F.

ACHEUX COMMUNAL CEMETERY FRENCH EXTENSION, in which two soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in April and May, 1916.

ALBERT GERMAN CEMETERY (" am Nordwest Ausgang ") (now removed), where 18 soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in April and May, 1918.

BEAUCOURT-SUR-ANCRE BRITISH CEMETERY (V Corps Cemetery No. 13), in the middle of the village, containing the graves of 21 officers and men from the United Kingdom who fell in November, 1916-February 1917.

CERISY-BULEUX CHURCHYARD, in which one soldier from the United Kingdom was buried in November, 1916.

PUISIEUX CHURCHYARD, where two soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried by the enemy in September, 1915.

TEN TREE ALLEY CEMETERY No. I, PUISIEUX (V Corps Cemetery No.24), 637 metres South-East of Serre, which contained the graves of 37 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in November, 1916-February, 1917. (The present Ten Tree Alley Cemetery was No.2.)

Number of burials by Unit

Plan of this Cemetery

Awards buried in this Cemetery

Lt. Ralph Adams M.C. and Bar. 1/8th Bn Royal Warwickshire Regt. Died 1st July 1916. Age 23. I. A. 33.

Cpl Claude James Arnold 28951 M.M. 4th Bn. 3rd N.Z. (Rifle) Brigade. Killed in action 21st April, 1918. Age 23 I.K.13.

Pte Arthur Botting, 14491, M.M. 7th Bn King's Shropshire Light Inf. Died 13th Nov., 1916 Age 25. I. D. 33.

Pte J., Edwards 203042 M.M. 9th Bn. King's Own Yorkshire Light Inf. Died 15th Aug., 1918. I. H. 38.

Sgt. Donald Hall Kennedy 14196 M.M. 16th Bn Highland Light Inf. Died 18th Nov., 1916. Age 28. VII. A. 30.

Sgt. Matthew Hudson Mossop 1027 M.M. 15th Bn West Yorkshire Regt., Died 1st July 1916. Age 26 I. B. 9.

Sgt Herbert Shaw 23127 D.C.M. 4th Div Signal Coy Royal Engineers. Died 1st July 1916 Age 30 I. A. 27.

C.S.M. Joseph Smith 308 17th Bn Middlesex Regt. Mentioned in despatches. Killed in action 13th Nov., 1916 Age 27 I. G. 19

Also buried in this Cemetery

Maj. J.N. Bromilow Commanding 1st Bn King's Own Royal Lancaster Regt. Died 2nd july, 1916. I. B. 51.

Pte. Peter Hume Brown 10320 2nd Bn Royal Scots. Killed in action 13th Nov. 1916 Age 26. I.G.4 His brother Robert also fell

Lce/Cpl Charles Guy Destrube 1236 22nd Bn Royal Fusiliers Killed in action 17th Feb., 1917. Age 27 brother of
Pte Paul Jean Destrube K/24 22nd Bn Royal Fusiliers killed in action 17th Feb 1917. Age 26 both in grave IV. C. 2.

Capt. Donald Benjamin 3/324 2nd Bn Canterbury Regt. N.Z.E.F. Killed in action 5th April, 1918. Age 31. Also served in Gallipoli and Egypt II. B. 1.

Pte Horace Iles 1784 15th Bn West Yorkshire Regt. Died 1st July 1916. Age 16 I. E. 39

2nd Lt. Donald Augustus 7th Sqdn Royal Flying Corps. Killed in air combat 16th Nov., 1916 Age 23. I. H. 40

Pte Herbert Ward Needham 18/1489 18th Bn Durham light Inf. Died 1st july 1916. Age 17 I. E. 22.