French Soldier Burial in Leeds
Ronald Addyman
© 2006 All Rights Reserved
For twenty-eight years, Maurice Menault, a French soldier of the Second World War, lay buried in Killingbeck Cemetery, Leeds. He had been brought out of Dunkirk in 1940 along with other wounded French and British soldiers who were subsequently dispersed to hospitals across the English counties. Maurice reached Seacroft Hospital, Leeds, where he was found to be badly wounded. He died shortly afterwards. He was 27 years of age and was married. We know that he was married for on his journey from France to England, Maurice thought of his wife and mentioned her to a fellow wounded soldier who helpfully passed this information to the hospital staff.
Soldat Maurice Menault was buried with full military honours in the grassy slopes of the Roman Catholic cemetery at Killingbeck across the road from Seacroft Hospital. The Tricolour of France was placed across his coffin on which were also placed his steel helmet and a wreath from the French vice-consul in Leeds. The Yorkshire Evening Post of June 4, 1940 reported that men of the British Royal Tank Corps headed the cortege and the coffin was carried on an army truck in the midst of flowers repeating the colours of France.
The newspaper further reported that a party of French soldiers, many of them of high rank, attended the funeral. They included all the wounded French soldiers from the hospital who were able to walk. Among these, the newspaper said, was a leather-jacketed French airman. They carried wreaths and so too did members of the Tank Corps. They were followed by the matron and some of the nurses from the hospital. Members of the 'French colony' in Leeds with the vice-consul brought up the rear. The Alliance Francaise was represented so too was the Lord Mayor of the City of Leeds.
After the Requiem Mass in the chapel of the cemetery, a short service was held at the graveside where members of the Tank Corps fired a salute with revolvers. A bugler sounded the 'Last Post'. And so, in the warmth of the June sunshine, the Yorkshire Post reported, French and British alike said their farewells to Maurice Menault, private soldier of France.
According to cemetery records, Maurice's remains were exhumed and re-interred in France at Versailles in 1968.
A French soldier at left and a British soldier at right carry wreaths to place on the grave of soldat Maurice Menault in Killingbeck Cemetery, Leeds, in June 1940.
The funeral of Soldat Maurice
Menault, a French soldier who died in an English hospital.
Yorkshire Evening Post. June 4, 1940.
The picture shows men of the British Royal Tank Corps carrying the coffin of the French soldier. A priest and altar servers can be seen in the right background. The cemetery chapel is in the centre background. The photograph and the accompanying text are by courtesy of the Leeds Central Libraries archive service. As the photograph was reproduced from microfilm, its quality has limitations. It is nevertheless a most valuable archive.
A diagram of the layout of the cemetery showing the burial plot identifier letters, the position of the chapel and the position of the war memorial. Maurice Menault lay in plot BV which is above and to the right of the chapel. His plot number was 488A.
A general view of part of Killingbeck Cemetery, York Road, Leeds. The war memorial can be seen in the foreground. Part of the clock tower of Seacroft Hospital can be seen in the background.
We would very much like to hear from anyone
who could help us learn more about Maurice Manault. Perhaps someone
in the Versailies area with family connections or other persons with
relevant information would contact us.
By the same author:
Recollections of National Service: An Extract
The British War Memorial at Fontaine-lez-Croisilles
The Boer War 1899-1902): Colonel Gascoigne and the Leeds Volunteers. Published in Soldiers of the Queen the Journal of the Victorian Military Society, Issue 107, December 2001.