The War Grave of Cyril Hulcatt Brew, 1893-1916

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The War Grave of Lieutenant Cyril Hulcatt Brew of the 2nd Battalion Irish Guards, who died on Thursday, 12 October 1916, aged 23, is located in Ste. Sever Cemetery, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France (Officers Grave A12.1). He was the son of Dr. Richard Hugh and Dora Vera Brew of Chew Magna, Somerset, England.

According to the records at the Public Record Office (PRO) in Kew, London, Cyril died of wounds received at Flers on 16 September 1916. The village of Flers, almost in the middle of the battlefields of the Rivers Ancre and Somme, is about four miles south-west of Bapaume. On 15th September 1916, the 41st and New Zealand Divisions entered the village during the battle of Flers-Courcelette in which British tanks were used for the first time, with immediate success. German troops retook the village in March 1918, but it returned to Allied hands again in August. Australian medical units were stationed in caves in the vicinity of Flers in the autumn of 1916, which evacuated many of the wounded to hospitals further south, such as those on the outskirts of Rouen, where Cyril was sent to.

British camps and hospitals were located on the southern outskirts of Rouen during the entirety of the First World War. These included eight General Hospitals, five Stationary Hospitals, one British Red Cross Hospital, one Native Labour Hospital and the No. 2 Convalescent Depot. 

The majority of those who died at these hospitals were buried in St. Sever Cemetery. There are 3,083 Commonwealth World War One graves in the cemetery, of which just two are unidentified. There is also one French national buried here and one non world war burial. 

St. Sever Cemetery and Extension (it is also a civil cemetery) is located in Rouen approximately 3km south of Rouen Cathederal, but is best reached from the south by entering the town through the N138. Exiting from the A13 freeway, follow the N138 through to the second roundabout. Take the fourth exit from this roundabout (The street is called "Rue Stanislas de Jardin", but the exit is signposted "Le Petit Quevilly"). The cemetery is approximately 150m on the left, where the first CWGC sign appears. 

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1 Grave of Cyril Hulcatt Brew  2 Inscription upon grave of Cyril Hulcatt Brew  3 Inscription upon grave of Cyril Hulcatt Brew  4 Epitaph upon grave of Cyril Hulcatt Brew, "So he passed over"  5 Grave of Cyril Hulcatt Brew  

6 St. Sever Cemetery with grave of Cyril Hulcatt Brew front centre  7 St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen, France  8 St. Sever Cemetery with grave of Cyril Hulcatt Brew first on left  9 St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen, France  10 Statue at St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen, France

© Photographs taken by Steve Brew on 28 September 2002