Duisans British Cemetery, Etrun

Duisans and Etrun are villages about 9 kilometres west of Arras. The Cemetery lies in Etrun but takes its name from the nearer village of Duisans.

The area around Duisans was occupied by Commonwealth forces from March 1916, but it was not until February 1917 that the site of this cemetery was selected for the 8th Casualty Clearing Station. The first burials took place in March and from the beginning of April the Cemetery grew very quickly.

Most of the graves relate to the Battles of Arras in 1917, and the trench warfare that followed, and there are now 3,205 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated at Duisans British Cemetery.

Nelson Ormerod, of the 8th (Service) Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, who died on 17 April 1917, is buried within the Cemetery (Grave Ref. III. B. 22).

34755 PRIVATE / N. ORMEROD / EAST LANCASHIRE REGIMENT / 17TH APRIL 1917