Is the first British soldier to die from WWI and the last British soldier to die from WWI are buried 10 feet away and facing each other
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Executive summary
Multiple reputable sources report that Private John Parr (killed 21 August 1914) and Private George Edwin Ellison (killed 11 November 1918) are buried in St Symphorien (Saint Symphorien) military cemetery in Belgium and that their graves stand opposite each other; accounts give distances in the order of a few metres to about 15 feet [1] [2] [3] [4]. Reporting and cemetery records repeatedly call Parr “the first British soldier killed” and Ellison “the last British soldier killed,” while noting that soldiers of other nations died before and after Ellison [2] [4].
1. The coincidence at St Symphorien: fact and reporting
Contemporary and retrospective reporting — including the Commonwealth-related and mainstream British press — records that John Parr and George Ellison are buried opposite one another in St Symphorien cemetery, a Soldiers’ burial ground near Mons, Belgium [1] [4] [3]. Sky News’s guide to the cemetery explicitly states Ellison “was the last British soldier to be killed” and notes the proximity of other nationalities’ graves, underlining that the juxtaposition is notable but not unique in that cemetery [2].
2. How close are the graves? Numbers vary across accounts
Different outlets give slightly different measures. The Daily Mail says their graves lie “just a few yards away” [1]. The Mirror describes them as “buried 15ft from each other” [3]. The Royal British Legion and Findmypast simply state the stones sit “opposite each other” without a precise distance [4] [5]. These discrepancies reflect journalistic shorthand rather than a formal CWGC measurement; CWGC records are cited for locations generally but the specific inter-grave spacing is not standardized across the cited pieces (p1_s4; [7] not quoted directly on spacing in sources provided).
3. “First” and “last” — what those labels mean in reporting
Press and commemorative sources identify Parr as the first British soldier killed and Ellison as the last British soldier killed in WWI from the British perspective [1] [2] [4]. Several pieces note the important caveat that Ellison was the last British casualty, while soldiers from other nations died later on 11 November 1918 or in the hours after — reporting that recognizes national distinctions in casualty counts [2]. That nuance appears in Sky News: “Private George Ellison was the last British soldier to be killed, but others, from other nations died after him” [2].
4. Why the graves ended up facing one another: history and cemetery practice
Sources attribute the coincidence to the shifting front around Mons — lost in 1914 and recovered at the Armistice — and to burial practice rather than deliberate symbolism [6] [2]. The cemetery’s composition — both German and Commonwealth graves and burials made at different times — produced the layout where Parr’s and Ellison’s graves face each other; Findmypast and Wikipedia note the “coincidence” and ties to the Mons battles that bracket British involvement [5] [6].
5. What reporting agrees on — and what it leaves open
All cited sources agree on the core facts: Parr and Ellison are in St Symphorien and are widely described as the first and last British fatalities; they are located opposite one another [1] [2] [4] [5]. They differ on exact distance wording (a few yards, 15 feet, a few metres) and on emphasis — some outlets foreground the poignancy of the juxtaposition, others stress the historical caveats about other nations’ casualties [1] [3] [2].
6. Limitations and unanswered specifics in the sources
Available sources do not give an authoritative, single CWGC-measured distance in feet between the two headstones in the material provided here; the variations are journalistic estimates [1] [3] [4]. Likewise, the CWGC database is cited as the authoritative keeper of graves but the exact inter-grave measurement is not quoted in the provided extracts (p1_s10 not supplying a precise distance here). For a definitive numeric separation one would need a CWGC site plan or on-site measurement, which is not included in the supplied reporting (available sources do not mention a CWGC-measured distance).
7. What to take away
The widely published and independently reported story is accurate in its essentials: Parr and Ellison are the popularly recognised first and last British soldiers killed in WWI and their graves stand opposite one another at St Symphorien cemetery — a coincidence repeatedly observed by the Daily Mail, Mirror, Royal British Legion, Sky News and other outlets [1] [3] [4] [2]. The exact “10 feet” figure appears as one of several approximations in press accounts; the provided sources do not supply a definitive, single measurement to confirm precisely “10 feet” [1] [3] [4].