Current Information:

43, Gap Road, Wimbledon

Post Office Rifles Cemetery, Festubert, France

The 18th London battalion went to France in March, 1915 and in May of that year they became part of 141 Brigade, 47th Division. During April, 1915 they went underwent training and for the last four days of the month they were at Ontario Camp near Ypres where they providesd working parties for various tasks. These tasks meant either providing carrying parties to take supplies of all kinds to the front line or working at trench digging, road making, railway laying and host of other tasks, sometimes under command of the Royal Engineers. The activities usually took place at night and were often very dangerous. Harassing artillery and machine-gun fire from the enemy would be kept up intermittently throughout the night designed to disrupt the work as much as possible. Tracks along which carrying parties had to travel to reach the front line were known to the German gunners and targeted accordingly. Many a soldier met his death while employed on a working party as was quite likely Post Office Rifles Cemetery, Festubert, Francethe case with Walter Unwin who was killed on 30th April.