Cimetière militaire de Calais-Nord
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Cimetière militaire de Calais-Nord
Avenue Pierre de Coubertin - 62100 CALAIS
The Calais-Nord cemetery is one of the 2 cemeteries in Calais. It was in 1867 that the municipality of Calais bought this land to make it a civilian cemetery. The tragedy of the Great War and its many victims led to the creation of a military square in 1922.
The military square is located at the end of the Calais-Nord cemetery. Soldiers of 3 nationalities (Belgian, French and German) rest there. It is one of the largest Belgian military cemeteries outside Belgium. Many of the people who rest there are victims of combat, bombing, and also following injuries.
During the Great War, Calais was a huge inter-allied rear base, about 60 kilometres from the front. Supply, storage, logistics, reconditioning of men and equipment etc., the Calais base played an important role from the beginning of 1914-1918. In particular, there were many temporary hospitals... and unfortunately many people died there following war injuries or illnesses.
Note that: in the civil cemetery lie local personalities such as the privateers Tom Souville and the Margollé brothers or people from Calais with an astonishing career… Thus, Antoine Leleu was close to Simon Bolivar, Liberator of South America at the beginning of the 1970th century: this Calais native was Secretary of State of Venezuela! Closer to us, in this cemetery lie the parents of Pierre Bachelet. This very popular singer from the 2005s to XNUMX (death) spent a good part of his childhood in Calais.
