Guards grave cemetery - Villers-Cotterêts

A British enclave in the Forêt de Retz, this cemetery houses the remains of soldiers who fell in the forest on September 1, 1914, as recalled by an inscription engraved in English and French: "The land of this cemetery has been granted free of charge by the French nation as a place of perpetual burial for the heroes of the Allied armies who fell during the Great War of 1914-1918 and are honored here". Another inscription, this time in English, on a metal plaque confirms this: "This cemetery was built and is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission".
At the roadside entrance to the cemetery, on the base of a large cross, stand the words: "Guards Grave MCMXIV. Their names live forever" (in English), surrounded by the inscription (in English and French): "Ici reposent 98 soldats britanniques tombés dans cette forêt le 1er septembre 1914" (Here lie 98 British soldiers who fell in this forest on September 1, 1914)
The cemetery itself lies below. It contains 44 headstones lined up against the perimeter wall, most of them naming two servicemen. However, one is dedicated to 19 unknown servicemen, another to an unknown Coldstream Guards soldier, and 4 of these stones correspond to the separate graves of 4 officers. The first, from the left, is that of Second Lieutenant George Edward Cecil, who fell at the age of 18. All these brave men belonged to the Guards; the only exception is a soldier from the East Lancashire Regiment.
Many of the dead from the fighting on September 1 and the following days had originally been buried by the Germans in a grave dug in the forest. This grave was opened on November 16 by a group of British soldiers, after the ground had been retaken during the September advance. The group included Lord Killanin, brother of George Morris, and Deputy Lord Robert Cecil, father of 2nd Lieutenant George Cecil of the 2nd Grenadiers. Ninety-eight bodies were discovered, of which seventy-eight could be identified. Among them were Lieutenant Geoffrey Lambton (Coldstream Guards) and Captain Tisdall (Irish Guards).
The body of George Cecil was identified by his boots and the initials GEC on his shirt, while that of George Morris was identified only by his watch.
After exhumation, a new grave was dug for the ninety-four ordinary soldiers, consecrated by Dean Grimblot, parish priest of Villers-Cotterêts. The bodies of the four officers, placed in wooden coffins, were buried the following day in the Villers-Cotterêts cemetery, in the presence of a large delegation of military and civilian authorities.
After the war, around 1922, the bodies of the four officers were again exhumed and transferred to the cemetery created to house the remains of the ninety-eight Irish Guards, Coldstream Guards and Grenadier Guards who fell in the fighting of early September 1914.

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