Details

Mametz was within the German lines until the 1st July 1916, when it was captured by the 7th Division; and Mametz Wood, North-East of the village was taken on the 7th July and the following days. The 7th Division erected a memorial in the village, and the 14th and 16th Royal Welch Fusiliers erected memorials in the wood, to commemorate these engagements. (The 38th (Welsh) Division captured the wood again in August 1918)

The 8th and 9th Battalions of the Devonshire Regiments, forming parts of the 7th Division, attacked on the 1st July 1916 from a point on the South-West side of the Albert - Maricourt road. due South of Mametz village, by a plantation called Mansell Copse; and there, on the 4th July, they buried their dead in a portion of their old front line. This place, subsequently became called Devonshire Cemetery.

Memorial Tablet at the entrance to the Devonshire Cemetery
	The inscription reads :- The Devonshires Held This Trench The Devonshires Hold It Still 1st July 1916 The 8th and 9th Devons Suffered Very Heavy Casualties As They Left Their Forward Trench to Attack Later That Day The Survivors Buried Their Fallen Comrades In That Same Trench And Erected A Wooden Memorial With The Words Which Are Carved In The Cross Above Semper Fidelis

Number of burials by Unit.

Those having Awards in this cemetery

Lt. William Noel Hodgson M.C., 9th Bn. Devonshire Regiment. Killed in action 1st July 1916 aged 23. One of the war poets. He was the son of the Vicar of Thornbury and the youngest of four children, all of whom were talented. He won a scholarship to Durham School and to Christ Church College Oxford to read Classics and gained a First in Classical Moderations in 1913. Commissioned in 1915 he was posted to Festubert and at Vermelles in 1915, he was awarded the Military Cross. He was on the Somme in Spring 1916 and a few days before the Big Push on the 1st July, he wrote his last poem "Before Action" from which the last line "Help me to die, O Lord" has immortalised him.

Capt. Geoffrey Philip Tregelles, Mentioned in Despatches. "A" Coy. 8th Bn. Devonshire Regiment. Killed in action 1st July 1916 aged 23. Native of Penzance. Undergraduate of Caius College, Cambridge. B. 6

Others buried in this cemetery

Capt. Duncan Lenox Martin, 9th Bn. Devonshire Regiment. Killed in action 1st July 1916 aged 30. While on leave prior to the attack on the 1st July, Capt. Martin had made a plasticine model of the area concerned in the coming advance. The 9th Bn was to attack in a north-westerly direction parallel to the main road and his model showed that the leading waves would be subjected to
enfilade fire from a machine-gun post sited in Mametz Civil cemetery if not destroyed during the preliminary bombardment. This proved to be the case and Martin reported this to his superiors. It was not possible to change the well-laid plans and Capt. Martin fell with many of his men during the first few yards of the advance.