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Question
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I heard on the Rememberance Day service that some Anzacs were buried in a Wiltshire churchyard. The place-name began with 'Sutton'. Could you please tell me where this was?
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Question asked on
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14 November 2002
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Answer
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There are a few churches in Wiltshire that have one or two Anzac graves in their churchyard but the greatest number is at Sutton Veny in the Wylye valley, to the south of Warminster. The Army started to build a camp there in 1914 and the first troops moved in on 27th April 1915. When fully occupied the camp contained 30,000 men and there were shops, a cinema, a large military hospital and many other amenities.
Towards the end of the war, in 1918, influenza swept through the camp for six weeks and over 100 Australian soldiers and five Australian nurses died. They are buried in Sutton Veny churchyard. Other soldiers who died in the military hospital between 1915 and 1918 are also buried in the churchyard and all are recorded in the parish burials register, which is in the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office. With some of the men the vicar was not aware of their forenames and so only the initials have been entered.
Apart from the above there are no locally held records of the men who stayed in the camp.
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Bibliography
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Wiltshire Village Book by Michael Marshman, 1999
Sutton Veny Burials Register
