Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial

The Portuguese Military Cemetery in Richebourg, Pas-de-Calais, France, is the burial site of 1,831 casualties of the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps in World War I. It is the only Portuguese military cemetery in France. The cemetery was built between 1924 and 1928 and a great number of its dead were killed in the Battle of the Lys in April 1918. A total of 238 are unidentified. Other burials were moved to the site from the rest of France, Belgium and German prisoner of war camps. In 1939, it was expanded from 1,500 graves to its present capacity. In 2014, the cemetery was one of several across France and Belgium listed to be nominated to be UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites. President of France Emmanuel Macron and President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa led a ceremony of 2,000 invitees at the cemetery on the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Lys, 9 April 2018. The site was also visited by Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio (2004) and prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho (2014).

Neuve-Chapelle (West Flemish: Nieuwkappel) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France It was the site of a First World War battle in 1915 about 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Béthune and 16 miles (26 km) southwest of Lille.

Lorgies (French pronunciation: [lɔʁʒi]) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France about 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Béthune and 13 miles (21 km) southwest of Lille.

Ernest Cotton Deane (4 May 1887 – 25 September 1915) was a medical officer of the British Indian Army and an Irish international rugby player. Born in the city of Limerick, Ireland, he went to school in Kingstown (present day Dún Laoghaire) in County Dublin and then studied medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), graduating in 1909. He was selected to play rugby for Ireland in one match, against England in February 1909. His rugby career was cut short when he broke his leg in a match against Oxford University. Deane was commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1911, after a period as house surgeon at the Adelaide Hospital, Dublin. In 1913, he was posted to India and served in Burma. He was stationed in Meerut at the start of the First World War. From there, he travelled to France with the Garhwal Brigade of the Indian Expeditionary Force, landing in Marseille in September 1914. He was deployed immediately to the Western Front, where he served first with the 20th Field Ambulance and then as medical officer of the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Leicestershire Regiment. His unit saw much active service. On 22 August 1915, he was awarded the Military Cross after running out under machine gun fire to rescue four men who had been wounded by artillery fire. A month later, his regiment participated in the Battle of Loos, and was almost entirely obliterated. He was shot dead after going to help some injured soldiers: his action earned him a mention in despatches. Deane was one of 60 RCSI doctors to receive the Military Cross in the First World War, and one of 17 to be killed in action.

The Battle of the Boar's Head was an attack on 30 June 1916 at Richebourg-l'Avoué in France, during the First World War. Troops of the 39th Division, XI Corps in the First Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), advanced to capture the Boar's Head, a salient held by the German 6th Army. Two battalions of the 116th Brigade, with one battalion forming carrying parties, attacked the German front position before dawn on 30 June. The British took and held the German front line trench and the second trench for several hours, before retiring to their lines having lost 850–1,366 casualties. The operation was conducted when the British Armies on the Western Front north of the Somme, supported the Fourth Army during the Battle of the Somme (1 July to 18 November). The British Third, First and Second armies conducted 310 raids against the Germans up to November 1916, harassing the Germans opposite to give novice divisions experience of fighting on the Western Front, to inflict casualties and to prevent German troops from being transferred to the Somme. From 19 to 20 July, XI Corps conducted the much bigger Battle of Fromelles, where British and Australian troops suffered an even greater number of casualties.

Richebourg (French pronunciation: [ʁiʃbuʁ] ; Picard: Ricquebourq) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It was formed on 21 February 1971 by merging Richebourg-Saint-Vaast and Richebourg-l'Avoué. In 1916 it was the site of the Battle of the Boar's Head.

Violaines (French pronunciation: [vjɔlɛn]) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.

Festubert (French pronunciation: [fɛstybɛʁ]) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France 21 miles (34 km) southwest of Lille. The village was on the Western Front during the First World War and was largely destroyed in the May 1915 Battle of Festubert.

The Defence of Festubert was an engagement on the Western Front early in the First World War when Indian and British battalions of the 7th (Meerut) Division of the Indian Army defended the village of Festubert against a German attack from 23 to 24 November 1914. It was one of the first actions in the war in which an attack was made against a prepared defensive position. The British and Indian regiments that took part were awarded the battle honour Festubert 1914.

Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée (French pronunciation: [ʒivɑ̃ʃi lɛ la base], literally Givenchy near La Bassée; Picard: Givinchy-lès-l’Bassée) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.

The Battle of Festubert (15–25 May 1915) was an attack by the British army in the Artois region of France on the western front during World War I. The offensive formed part of a series of attacks by the French Tenth Army and the British First Army in the Second Battle of Artois (3 May – 18 June 1915). After the failure of the breakthrough attempt by the First Army in the attack at Aubers Ridge (9 May 1915) tactics of a short hurricane bombardment and an infantry advance with unlimited objectives, were replaced by the French practice of slow and deliberate artillery-fire intended to prepare the way for an infantry attack. A continuous three-day bombardment by the British heavy artillery was planned, to cut wire and demolish German machine-gun posts and infantry strong points. The German defences were to be captured by a continuous attack, by one division from Rue du Bois to Chocolat Menier Corner and by a second division 600 yd (550 m) north, which was to capture the German trenches to the left of Festubert. The objectives were 1,000 yd (910 m) forward, rather than the 3,000 yd (1.7 mi; 2.7 km) depth of advance attempted at Aubers Ridge. The battle was the first British attempt at attrition.

The Battle of La Bassée was fought by German and Franco-British forces in northern France in October 1914, during reciprocal attempts by the contending armies to envelop the northern flank of their opponent, which has been called the Race to the Sea. The 6th Army took Lille before a British force could secure the town and the 4th Army attacked the exposed British flank further north at Ypres. The British were driven back and the German army occupied La Bassée and Neuve Chapelle. Around 15 October, the British recaptured Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée but failed to recover La Bassée. German reinforcements arrived and regained the initiative, until the arrival of the Lahore Division, part of the Indian Corps. The British repulsed German attacks until early November, after which both sides concentrated their resources on the First Battle of Ypres. The battle at La Bassée was reduced to local operations. In late January and early February 1915, German and British troops conducted raids and local attacks in the Affairs of Cuinchy, which took place at Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée and just south of La Bassée Canal, leaving the front line little changed.