Chinese cemetery of Nolette and a bit of Le Crotoy (by K2)
Jan 26, 2017 6:51:56 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2017 6:51:56 GMT
The Chinese cemetery of Nolette is the biggest Chinese cemetery in France and has 849 tombs of workers of the Chinese Labour Corps recruited by the British Army beginning in 1917. The story of Chinese workers in France during the Great War is quite interesting and concerns far greater numbers than most people imagine. To begin with, the French brought over 220,000 colonial and Chinese workers between 1914 and 1918. This is not to be confused with actual colonial troops -- another 600,000! The British brought about 95,000 Chinese workers to France starting in 1917. Since China was not at war with Germany or Austria-Hungary, the Chinese could not be used as combattants. They dug trenches, collected the dead from battlefields, loaded and unloaded lorries, cooked and cleaned. Unlike the French, the British were completely against fraternisation with local populations, and the workers were confined to their barracks most of the time. The British had 24 worker camps in France, and the camp of Noyelles-sur-Mer was the main transit camp, through which 90,000 Chinese passed. Besides doing very hard work, they were subject to corporal punishment and fines for being late, absent or insolent. Due to the total isolation, the local peasants were absolutely terrified of the Chinese and blamed every theft or robbery on them.
After the armistice, the workers remained for another couple of years building or repairing rail lines and roads, but by 1920 all of the survivors had been repatriated. According to British sources, about 2000 members of the CLC perished, but Chinese sources claim that 27,000 Chinese workers disappeared, counting only the ones with British contracts. As for the ones working for the French, they had lived under more favourable conditions with fewers deaths, and also many more of them remained in France to found families, creating the first Chinese communities in France.
Most of the workers who died were victims of cholera, then the Spanish flu epidemic and finally tuberculosis. Some were killed by German bombs, others by work accidents and a few in fights.
In 1921, the British governement decided to create a Chinese cemetery in Nolette, a hamlet just outside of Noyelles. It is cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission but has no trappings of the other British cemeteries in France and no cross. I have been wanting to see it for several years, so I finally managed to go there. The road to the cemetery is not even paved and apparently it gets only about 200 visitors a year, almost exclusively Chinese. A small delegation comes for the Ching Ming Festival in the spring, and at other times of the year a few Chinese tourists find their way to this location. There are also a few coolie graves (the word coolie was not considered to be offensive back then) in the surrounding cemeteries of Abbeville, Albert, Daours, Gézaincourt, Tincourt-Boucly and Villers-Carbonnel.
After the armistice, the workers remained for another couple of years building or repairing rail lines and roads, but by 1920 all of the survivors had been repatriated. According to British sources, about 2000 members of the CLC perished, but Chinese sources claim that 27,000 Chinese workers disappeared, counting only the ones with British contracts. As for the ones working for the French, they had lived under more favourable conditions with fewers deaths, and also many more of them remained in France to found families, creating the first Chinese communities in France.
Most of the workers who died were victims of cholera, then the Spanish flu epidemic and finally tuberculosis. Some were killed by German bombs, others by work accidents and a few in fights.
In 1921, the British governement decided to create a Chinese cemetery in Nolette, a hamlet just outside of Noyelles. It is cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission but has no trappings of the other British cemeteries in France and no cross. I have been wanting to see it for several years, so I finally managed to go there. The road to the cemetery is not even paved and apparently it gets only about 200 visitors a year, almost exclusively Chinese. A small delegation comes for the Ching Ming Festival in the spring, and at other times of the year a few Chinese tourists find their way to this location. There are also a few coolie graves (the word coolie was not considered to be offensive back then) in the surrounding cemeteries of Abbeville, Albert, Daours, Gézaincourt, Tincourt-Boucly and Villers-Carbonnel.
Anyway, first I had to unfreeze the car.
s19.postimg.cc/txq3dbo5v/Havre_Honf_Crot_358.jpg
I crept carefully along the icy roads to see some of the Somme.
s19.postimg.cc/f31hz5ekz/Havre_Honf_Crot_359.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/dcigxnx1v/Havre_Honf_Crot_360.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/hbfoghloz/Havre_Honf_Crot_362.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/llucc2qs3/Havre_Honf_Crot_363.jpg
This is the road to the cemetery.
s19.postimg.cc/cebamuyhf/Havre_Honf_Crot_383.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/71mg8qakz/Havre_Honf_Crot_382.jpg
And here we are.
s19.postimg.cc/8vupcq87n/Havre_Honf_Crot_364.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/jjygbki6r/Havre_Honf_Crot_365.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/txq3dbo5v/Havre_Honf_Crot_358.jpg
I crept carefully along the icy roads to see some of the Somme.
s19.postimg.cc/f31hz5ekz/Havre_Honf_Crot_359.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/dcigxnx1v/Havre_Honf_Crot_360.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/hbfoghloz/Havre_Honf_Crot_362.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/llucc2qs3/Havre_Honf_Crot_363.jpg
This is the road to the cemetery.
s19.postimg.cc/cebamuyhf/Havre_Honf_Crot_383.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/71mg8qakz/Havre_Honf_Crot_382.jpg
And here we are.
s19.postimg.cc/8vupcq87n/Havre_Honf_Crot_364.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/jjygbki6r/Havre_Honf_Crot_365.jpg