Noyelles-sur-Mer Chinese Memorial

liverpool annie · Apr 29, 2009

In a sleepy village on Somme estuary in northern France, a small First World War cemetery pays homage to the memory of the men of the Chinese Labour Corps, whose contribution to the Allied war effort has largely been forgotten by history.

Looking out onto the flat meadows and dense woods of the Somme, it is easy to miss the subtle scars of the land – long crevices of trench lines and huge craters camouflaged by young woodland – that bear witness to the horrific scenes of nearly a century ago.

This part of France has no shortage of war cemeteries, where endless columns of perfectly aligned gravestones stretch as far as the eye can see and stately cenotaphs bear witness to the colossal human cost of the Great War. The locations of British cemeteries mark the shifting allied frontline during 1916, when the farmyards and forests of the Somme were transformed into the bloodiest ....

This man was remembered on another site on my son's birthday ! ........ RIP CHAO TE HSLANG

Name: CHAO TE HSLANG
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Labourer
Regiment: Chinese Labour Corps
Date of Death: 21/03/1918
Service No: 50010
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: I. C. 18.
Cemetery: NOYELLES-SUR-MER CHINESE CEMETERY

Noyelles-Sur-Mer was the base depot of the Chinese Labour Corps in France, the site of their largest camp and of No 3 Labour (originally the Chinese) General Hospital. The Chinese Labour Corps was the outcome of an agreement made between the United Kingdom and Chinese Governments on 30 December 1916, for the employment of Chinese labour in France. The men were recruited in north China and the first contingent arrived in France in April 1917. By the end of 1917, 54,000 were in France and Belgium. At the Armistice the Corps numbered nearly 96,000 and even in May 1919, 80,000 were at work. Nearly 2,000 died during the war and when the cemeteries were constructed after the war was over, the headstones for these men were engraved in Chinese characters by a selected group of their comrades.

http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/great-war-people/miltary-justice/874-forgotten-hands.html

Noyelles-sur-Mer Chinese Memorial, commemorating 41 men of the Corps who died on land or at sea and whose graves are not known.

liverpool annie · Apr 29, 2009

In case anybody is interested ...... heres some more information about the Chinese Labour Corps

As the First World War progressed it became increasingly obvious that Britain did not have enough manpower to cover her needs in the Army as well as at home in the munitions factories despite the greatly increased number of women working in industry and other fields.

Also, as the Army grew, the logistical efforts needed to service it required greater numbers of personnel. Northern France and Flanders had become a vast and complex system of dumps, roads, canals, railways and docks all there to provide for the fighting army in the front line. In 1916 it was decided to look for other sources of labour to take over some of these jobs.

One of these pools of Labour was in China. The British had used large numbers of Chinese in the past. They had worked in South Africa in the gold mines, and in Canada building railways as well as other places throughout the Empire and had, by and large, been found to be satisfactory and capable of quickly learning new skills. It was, therefore decided to begin to recruit them to ease the growing labour shortages.

The majority of them came from the Northern Chinese province of Shandong. They were employed as ‘indented labour’, that is, they were contracted to work for the duration of the war after which they would be returned home. They were also told that they would not be expected to work in any dangerous areas. This proviso, though kept to in principle, was sometimes difficult to keep and some did die by enemy action. The first groups arrived in France in 1917 and eventually about 95,000 were employed by the British Army alone. We also recruited large numbers of Egyptian, Indian and South African workers as well as smaller groups from other countries.

Their pay, although not generous, was reasonable for the time and there were provisions for them to remit money to their families. They were also provided with clothing and their diet was arranged as closely as possible to match what they would eat at home.

Their work didn’t just consist of road building and general labouring. They also worked in engineering workshops (on tanks for instance), working cranes in port areas and in other skilled engineering jobs.

On the whole they worked very satisfactorily although there were one or two mutinies on a minor scale. After one of these the Court of Enquiry found that the basis of the trouble was that some of the labourers had been mistreated and the Commanding Officer was replaced. The old Chinese addiction to gambling also caused some problems and resulted in several murders.

At the end of the war an organisation called ‘The Clearing Up Army’ was formed. As you can imagine, there were huge amounts of material, railways, vehicles, barbed wire and all the other paraphernalia of war to be got rid of and the Chinese Labour Corps formed part of the two million men and women who took part in this exercise. Amongst their jobs was the concentration of the dead, many of who were scattered in small groups, into cemeteries which in those days were fairly rudimentary, but which formed the basis of the ones we know today.

The majority of deaths amongst the Chinese occurred in this post-war period due to the Spanish Influenza epidemic which eventually caused more deaths world wide than the war itself had. Nearly 2000 Chinese labourers died of the disease as well as from injuries, many caused by unexploded ammunition disturbed in the clean up.

The main base for the Chinese Labour Corps was at Noyelles-sur-Mer and near here is one of their main cemeteries. The Imperial War Graves Commission (as it was then) had as one of its main precepts the idea of ‘equality in death’, that is that all casualties, be they generals or labourers would be commemorated equally and without distinction as to the size of their headstones.

The cemetery at Noyelles-sur-Mer contains 838 Chinese labourers. The Chinese chose the site themselves to ensure that the fengshui was correct, that is, it is on a slope with running water at the bottom. They were also consulted on the inscriptions to be used on the headstones and the following three are usually used the inscriptions being in English and in Chinese characters. ‘Faithful Unto Death’, ‘A Noble Duty Bravely Done’ and ‘A Good Reputation Endures Forever’. There are other cemeteries that contain large numbers of Chinese burials but many are scattered in smaller numbers throughout the CWGC cemeteries. They are also to be found in some cemeteries in the UK. Chinese members of the Corps carved the original headstones.

How were they treated? In looking at history we must never judge people’s actions by the values of today. There are things that we do now which will horrify people in the future. Having said that, yes, racist behaviour and some mistreatment did occur, but by and large, when the British officers and NCOs in charge of them acted fairly and decently, the men responded in kind. Considerable efforts were also made to ensure that their living conditions, clothing and diet were adequate and that they had recreational facilities.

What did they think of it all? One observer remembers the wide-eyed amazement of one labourer who wondered at the absurdity of the effort being made over a matter that could have been settled at far less cost by bribery.

They are now one of the few groups engaged in the Great War who has no memorial in the UK. The main reasons for this are that China was not a belligerent power and none of the men came from the British Empire, however it would be good to see them properly commemorated. As the author and poet Edmund Blunden described them ‘that numerous force…smiling, wondering, proudly doing what it had come so many miles to do’.

At St George’s Memorial Church in Ieper (Ypres) there is now a memorial brass plaque which commemorates them so at least this is a start. If you are ever in Ieper look it out and give these men a few moments thought
Click to expand...

Leslie Graham

http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Chinese_Laborers/Chinese_Laborers_01.htm

sniper · Aug 28, 2010

I have this cemetery covered for the Commonwealth Roll of Honour Project so if anyone wishes a photo of any of the casualties headstones please let me know.

Sniper

Log in or Sign up

Noyelles-sur-Mer Chinese Memorial

liverpool annie New Member

Attached Files:

Noyelles-sur-Mer Chinese Memorial.jpg

liverpool annie New Member

sniper Active Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Noyelles-sur-Mer Chinese Memorial

Thread Tools

liverpool annie New Member

Attached Files:

Noyelles-sur-Mer Chinese Memorial.jpg

liverpool annie New Member

sniper Active Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches