Commonwealth War Graves Ripon Cemetery

Ripon Cemetery contains 122 scattered burials from the First World War. In 1940 the School of Military Engineering was transferred to Ripon, where it remained for the duration of the war, the Yorkshire dales becoming an important military training centre. However, the majority of the Second World War burials in the cemetery are those of airmen from airfields in the locality, the R.A.F. Station at Dishforth being only a few miles distant. The headquarters of No. 6 (R.C.A.F.) Bomber Group was at Allerton Park near Knaresborough and many of the Canadian airmen buried here came from the Royal Canadian Air Force Station at Leeming, a base from which Canadian heavy bomber squadrons carried out their night attacks over enemy occupied Europe. The Canadian training base headquarters of No. 6 Group was at Topcliffe. After 1943 most of the airmen who died in this district were buried in the regional cemetery at Harrogate. Most of the 59 Second World War burials form a war graves plot. The plot also contains five German war graves.

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Source

• Text: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• Photos: Anthony (Sharky) Ward