Historical Information
The cemetery was begun in April 1917, on the new front resulting from the Battles of Arras, and it was used by the units holding that front until the following November. These original burials are in Plot VI, Row K, and Plot I, Rows A to F. The cemetery was greatly enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the neighbouring battlefields and from other burial grounds, including:-
FRESNES-LES-MONTAUBAN COMMUNAL CEMETERY, in which five soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried by the 26th Field Ambulance in October 1918.
FRESNOY CHURCHYARD, between Lens and Arras, where an R.F.C. officer was buried by the enemy in March 1917.
FUSILIERS CEMETERY, BAILLEUL-SIRE-BERTHOULT, 800 metres South-West of the village beside the railway line, where eleven men of the Northumberland Fusiliers, four of the Royal Fusiliers and one Royal Marine were buried by the 63rd Division in April and May 1917.
OUSE ALLEY CEMETERY, BAILLEUL-SIRE-BERTHOULT, about 1 kilometre North-East of the village, where 38 officers and men from the United Kingdom were buried by their comrades in June 1917-February 1918.
QUIERY-LA-MOTTE BRITISH CEMETERY, 800 metres North-West of La Motte, where 27 soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried by the 2nd East Lancs and other units in October 1918.
2ND CANADIAN DIVISION CEMETERY, WILLERVAL, midway between Vimy and Acheville, where 16 Canadian soldiers were buried by the 2nd Canadian Division in May 1917.
WILLERVAL CANADIAN CEMETERY (or VANCOUVER ROAD CEMETERY) made by the 2nd Canadian Division in May 1917, and containing the graves of 34 Canadian soldiers. It stood about midway between Vimy and Fresnoy.
WILLERVAL CHURCHYARD, where four men of the 3rd Canadian Battalion were buried in April and May 1917.
During the 1939-45 War, No.2 Casualty Clearing Station was at Rouvroy, three kilometres north-east of Arleux, and the cemetery was used again.
There are over 3,000, 1914-18 and 20, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, more than four-fifths from the 1914-18 War, are unidentified and special memorials are erected to ten soldiers from the United Kingdom and four from Canada known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 38 Canadian soldiers and six from the United Kingdom, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.
Certain graves in Plots VII, VIII and IX, identified collectively but not individually, are marked by headstones bearing the additional words "Buried near this spot.".
The cemetery covers an area of 9,402 square metres and is enclosed by rubble walls on three sides.
A tablet in the cemetery records the fact that the site was given by the widow of a Captain in the French 72nd Infantry Regiment, killed in action in August 1914.
http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/27000/ORCHARD%20DUMP%20CEMETERY,%20ARLEUX-EN-GOHELLE
