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Pas de Calais – Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe

Gunner Irvin Wilcox, who died on 12th March 1918, is buried in Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe, Pas de Calais, France (plot IV B 7).  Philosophe lies between Bethune and Lens.

The cemetery was started in August 1915.  In 1916 it was taken over by the 16th (Irish) Division, who held the Loos Salient at the time, and many of their dead were brought back to the cemetery from the front line.  Succeeding divisions used the cemetery until October 1918 and men of the same Division, and often the same battalion, were buried side by side.

There are nearly 2,000 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery, 277 of them unidentified.  The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.