Walker's Ridge Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery

Last updated
Walker's Ridge
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Used for those deceased Aug - Dec 1915
Established 1915
Total burials 92
Unknown burials 12
Burials by nation
Burials by war
Statistics source: Battlefields 14-18

Walker's Ridge Cemetery is a small Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery located near Suvla Bay in Turkey. It contains the remains of Allied soldiers killed during the Battle of Gallipoli.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars. The Commission is also responsible for commemorating Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action during World War II. The Commission was founded by Sir Fabian Ware and constituted through Royal Charter in 1917 named the Imperial War Graves Commission. The change to the present name took place in 1960.

Turkey Republic in Western Asia

Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. East Thrace, located in Europe, is separated from Anatolia by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorous strait and the Dardanelles. Turkey is bordered by Greece and Bulgaria to its northwest; Georgia to its northeast; Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the south. Istanbul is the largest city, but more central Ankara is the capital. Approximately 70 to 80 per cent of the country's citizens identify as Turkish. Kurds are the largest minority; the size of the Kurdish population is a subject of dispute with estimates placing the figure at anywhere from 12 to 25 per cent of the population.

Contents

It was constructed on a spur which was named by the occupying troops after the headquarters of the New Zealand Infantry Brigade, under the command of Brigadier-General Harold Walker, which was located there. The cemetery was formed during the occupation in 1915 and is divided into two plots 20 metres apart and originally separated by a trench.

Lieutenant General Sir Harold Bridgwood Walker, was a senior British Army commander who led Australian and New Zealand forces for much of the First World War. He was highly regarded by the men he commanded and was only replaced in 1918 when politics dictated that all divisions of the Australian Imperial Force should be commanded by Australians.

Notable graves

Harold Rush's grave marker in Walker's Ridge Cemetery Harold Rush headstone closeup.jpg
Harold Rush's grave marker in Walker's Ridge Cemetery

Amongst the graves is that of 23-year-old Trooper Harold Rush of the 10th Australian Light Horse regiment. Rush was in the third wave of troops to charge Turkish trenches at the battle of the Nek on 7 August 1915. Seeing that previous two waves had been slaughtered, just before his wave attacked he turned to a fellow soldier and said "Goodbye Cobber, God bless you". His parents had these last words recorded on his grave marker.

Battle of the Nek

The Battle of the Nek was a small World War I battle fought as part of the Gallipoli campaign. "The Nek" was a narrow stretch of ridge on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The name derives from the Afrikaans word for a "mountain pass" but the terrain itself was a perfect bottleneck and easy to defend, as had been proven during an Ottoman attack in May. It connected the Anzac trenches on the ridge known as "Russell's Top" to the knoll called "Baby 700" on which the Ottoman defenders were entrenched. The immediate area became known as Anzac, with the allied landing site becoming Anzac Cove, after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

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References