Private Robert Nixon is remembered on Bay 5 within the Arras Memorial. The Arras Memorial is in the Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery, which is in the Boulevard du General de Gaulle in the western part of the town of Arras. The cemetery is near the Citadel, approximately 2 kilometres due west of the railway station. The French handed over Arras to Commonwealth forces in the spring of 1916 and the system of tunnels upon which the town is built were used and developed in preparation for the major offensive planned for April 1917. The Commonwealth section of the FAUBOURG D'AMIENS CEMETERY was begun in March 1916, behind the French military cemetery established earlier. It continued to be used by field ambulances and fighting units until November 1918. The cemetery was enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields and from two smaller cemeteries in the vicinity. The cemetery contains 2,651 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. In addition, there are 30 war graves of other nationalities, most of them German. The ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918. Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A separate memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. The ARRAS FLYING SERVICES MEMORIAL commemorates nearly 1,000 airmen of the Royal Naval Air Service, the Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Air Force, either by attachment from other arms of the forces of the Commonwealth or by original enlistment, who were killed on the whole Western Front and who have no known grave. Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick. (The webmaster writes: My own Great Grandfather, Charles Royden, was killed on the same day. He was with the Royal Field Artillery attached to the Canadian forces who were forced to withdraw in the early hours of the morning of the 22nd from Monchy-le-Prieux, a small village to the east of Arras on high ground. This was part of the defensive line around the town which was attacked on 21st March in Operation Michael, the last major German push of the war. It is likely that Private Nixon was involved in similar action near Arras).

Private Robert Nixon is the Great Grandfather of James Nixon (11W 2006)

Casualty Details

Name:	NIXON, ROBERT
Initials:	R
Nationality:	United Kingdom
Rank:	Private
Regiment/Service:	Yorkshire Regiment
Unit Text:	13th Bn.
Age:	25
Date of Death:	22/03/1918
Service No:	241138
Additional information:	Son of George and Sarah Nixon, of Harome, Nawton, Yorks; husband of Alice Maud Mary Mellanley (formerly Nixon), of 79, St. Bernard Rd., Stockton-on-Tees.
Casualty Type:	Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference:	Bay 5.
Memorial:	ARRAS MEMORIAL

Certificate

In Memory of Private ROBERT NIXON 241138, 13th Bn., Yorkshire Regiment who died age 25 on 22 March 1918 Son of George and Sarah Nixon, of Harome, Nawton, Yorks; husband of Alice Maud Mary Mellanley (formerly Nixon), of 79, St. Bernard Rd., Stockton-on-Tees. Remembered with honour ARRAS MEMORIAL Commemorated in perpetuity by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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