Westvleteren Military Cemetery

Throughout the war Westvletern was some 8 kilometres behind the front. This was a relatively safe distance, and so in 1915 the Belgian authorities set up an aid post in the former girls' school. As a result, Westvletern became a link in the chain of medical evacuation for the Fort Knocke/Drie Grachten (Three Canals) sector.

Aid posts of this kind were usually followed soon after by the creation of nearby cemeteries, for the burial of those soldiers who did not survive long enough to make it back to the larger medical facilities, such as the L’Océan hospitals in Vinkem and De Panne. After the war, other scattered burials were brought here, although many French and Belgian families chose to have the remains of their loved ones repatriated to their native towns and villages. The cemetery at Westvleteren now contains some 1,200 graves.

One name that you will not find amongst them is that of Henri Reyns. He died near here, but his death at the time was not regarded as 'honourable'. He refused to return to the front, probably because he was suffering from shellshock. He was court-martialed and sentenced to death. King Albert refused to grant him mercy (possible because of a faked army report) and so Henri Reyns was executed by firing squad on 17 May 1915. The uproar surrounding his execution led to the abolition of the death penalty for deserters from the Belgian Army. You can find the testimony of eye-witnesses to his execution in the stories.

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