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      • 1916—Fromelles and the Somme
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      • A Bitter Fate—Australians In Malaya & Singapore
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    • #1MS (1 Minute's Silence)
    • 60th Anniversary of the Korean War
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    • 70th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin
    • 95th Anniversary of the landings on Gallipoli
    • ADSA 2019 Poster
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    • Commemorating the Centenary of the Gallipoli Landings
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    • Discovering Anzacs Exhibition Tips and Tools (Learn Area)
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    • Gallipoli and the Anzacs
    • Great Debates: The Anzac Legend
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    • Here they come—A day to remember
    • INTERFET—International Forces for East Timor
    • Indigenous Service
    • Investigating Gallipoli
    • Kokoda: Exploring the Second World War campaign in Papua New Guinea
    • Korea—A Cold War conflict (1950–1953)
    • M is for Mates—Animals in Wartime from Ajax to Zep
    • Remembering Them app—Education Activities
    • Remembrance Day Posters 2018
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    • Schooling, Service and the Great War (Primary Resource)
    • Schooling, Service and the Great War (Secondary Resource)
    • Symbols of Commemoration Cube Education Activities (Secondary)
    • Symbols of Commemoration Cube—Education Activities (Primary school resource)
    • The Flanders Poppy—A symbol of remembrance
    • The Nominal Roll of Australian Korean War Veterans
    • The Nominal Roll of Australian Vietnam War Veterans
    • The Nominal Roll of Australian World War 2 Veterans
    • The Sinking of HMAS Sydney
    • The War that Changed Us Education Activities
    • Their Spirit, Our History
    • Wartime Snapshots No. 24: Commemorating the centenary of the Armistice
    • Wartime snapshot #23—1918-2018: Centenary of the Final Campaigns
    • We Remember Anzac (Primary Resource)
    • We Remember Anzac (Secondary Resource)
    • We'll Meet Again
  • Gallipoli and the Anzacs
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  • The Thai–Burma Railway and Hellfire Pass
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  • Gallipoli and the Anzacs
    • Why did Anzacs land at Gallipoli?
      • Who were the Anzacs and the Australian Imperial Force?
        • General-Birdwood: the 'soul of Anzac'
      • 18 March 1915
      • Gallipoli invasion plans
    • Frequently asked questions
      • Australians at Gallipoli (FAQs)
      • The Gallipoli Campaign (FAQs)
  • Events
    • The battle of the landing
      • A description of the landing
      • War Correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett
        • Military censorship at Gallipoli
        • The Gallipoli letter to Asquith PM
        • War diary: 24 April–25 July
        • Biography: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett (1881–1931)
      • War correspondent Charles Bean
        • Biography: C.E.W Bean 1879–1968
    • North Beach and the Sari Bair Range
      • The landings at North Beach, 25 April 1915
      • The Anzac outposts, April–July 1915
      • Scouting the Sari Bair Range, May 1915
      • The August Offensive in the Sari Bair Range, 6–10 August 1915
      • Hill 60, 21–28 August 1915
      • The development of the North Beach base (September–November 1915)
      • The evacuation of Anzac, December 1915
      • Remembering Anzac
    • Submarines in the Dardanelles, 1915
      • Lieutenant Commander Henry Stoker and HMAS Submarine AE2
      • AE2 documents
      • Submarines in the Dardanelles gallery
      • Lieutenant Norman Holbrook VC and the HMS Submarine B11
      • An illustrated voyage of the AE2
    • The 'first to fall', 25 April 1915
      • Australian 'first to fall' burial sites
      • The 59 men killed from 11th Battalion
    • Digging in, fighting back
      • The second Battle of Krithia, 8 May 1915
      • The Turkish Attack, 19 May 1915
      • The August Offensive and the Battle of Lone Pine, 6–10 August 1915
      • Hill 60, 21–28 August 1915
    • Bravery awards at Gallipoli
      • The Battle of Lone Pine
        • Gallery: the Battle of Lone Pine
        • Gallery: Lone Pine today
      • Corporal Alexander Burton, Corporal William Dunstan and Lieutenant Frederick Tubb
        • Biography of Alexander Burton (1893-1915)
        • Biography of William Dunstan (1895-1957)
        • Biography of Frederick Tubb (1881–1917)
      • Private John Hamilton
        • Biography of John Hamilton (1896-1961)
        • John Wren collage 1920
      • Lance Corporal Leonard Keysor
        • Biography: Leonard Keysor (1885-1951)
      • Captain Alfred Shout
        • Biography: Alfred Shout (1881–1915)
      • Lieutenant William Symons
        • Biography: William Symons (1889–1948)
      • Lance Corporal Albert Jacka
        • Biography: Albert Jacka (1893–1932)
      • Second–Lieutenant Hugo Throssell
        • Biography: Hugo Throssell (1884–1933)
        • Documents: Hugo Throssell VC
      • Corporal Cyril Bassett
        • Biography: Cyril Bassett (1892–1983)
      • Lance-Corporal Walter Parker
    • Nurses at Gallipoli
      • The nurses' experience of Gallipoli from their letters
      • Life on Lemnos: excerpts from Lance Corporal Archibald Barwick's diary
      • Pictures of life on Lemnos
    • Leaving Gallipoli
      • Remembering Anzac
    • Anzac timeline
      • August–December 1914
      • January–February 1915
      • March 1915
      • April 1915
      • May 1915
      • June–July 1915
      • August 1915
      • September–October 1915
      • November–December 1915
      • January 1916
  • Locations
    • A walk around Anzac battlefield sites
      • North Beach Anzac commemorative battlefield site
      • Ari Burnu Cemetery battlefield site
      • Anzac Cove battlefield site
      • Hell Spit battlefield site
      • Shrapnel Valley Cemetery battlefield site
      • Brighton Beach – Coast Road battlefield site
      • Artillery Road – Shell Green battlefield site
      • Lone Pine Cemetery and Memorial battlefield site
      • Johnston's Jolly battlefield site
      • Quinn's Post battlefield site
      • Turkish Memorial battlefield site
      • The Nek Cemetery battlefield site
      • Walker's Ridge Cemetery battlefield site
      • Overlooking North Beach at Walker's Ridge
    • Explore Anzac area sites
      • North Beach
      • Anzac Cove
      • Shrapnel Gully
      • Lone Pine
      • The Ridge
      • Quinn's Post
      • Turkish Soldier Memorial
      • Baby 700 Cemetery
      • The Nek
      • Chunuk Bair
      • Atatürk's House, Bigali
    • Explore Helles area sites
      • Kilitbahir Fort and Corporal Seyit Memorial, Kilitbahir
      • Seddülbahir Fort, V Beach and Yahya Çavuş Memorial, Seddülbahir
      • Charles Doughty-Wylie's Grave, Seddülbahir
      • Helles Memorial, Cape Helles
      • Redoubt Cemetery, Alçitepe
      • Çanakkale Sehitleri Aniti (Çanakkale Martyrs Memorial), Morto Bay
      • Morto Bay French Cemetery
    • Explore Asian shore sites
      • British Consular Cemetery, Çanakkale
      • The Nusret, Çanakkale
      • Fort Dardanos
      • Kumkale
    • Explore Turkish Memorials
      • The Nusret, Çanakkale Strait Commandery Military Museum
      • Dur Yolcu Memorial, Kilitbahir
      • Kilitbahir and the Ramparts
      • Seddülbahir Fort and Ertuğrul Cove
      • Çanakkale Sehitleri Aniti (Çanakkale Martyrs Memorial), Morto Bay
      • Atatürk Evi (Atatürk’s House), Bigali, Gallipoli
      • Kanlisirt Aniti (Kanlisirt Memorial), Anzac
      • Conkbayiri Atatürk Aniti (Atatürk Memorial), Conkbayiri
    • Explore northern war cemeteries
      • 4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery
      • 7th Field Ambulance Cemetery
      • Ari Burnu Cemetery
      • Azmak Cemetery
      • Baby 700 Cemetery
      • Beach Cemetery
      • Canterbury Cemetery
      • Chunuk Bair Cemetery and Chunuk Bair (New Zealand) Memorial
      • Courtney's and Steel's Post Cemetery
      • Embarkation Pier Cemetery
      • Green Hill Cemetery
      • Hill 10 Cemetery
      • Hill 60 Cemetery and New Zealand Memorial
      • Johnston's Jolly Cemetery
      • Lala Baba Cemetery
      • Lone Pine Cemetery and Lone Pine Memorial
      • New Zealand No. 2 Outpost Cemetery
      • No.2 Outpost Cemetery
      • Plugge's Plateau Cemetery
      • Quinn's Post Cemetery
      • Shell Green Cemetery
      • Shrapnel Valley Cemetery
      • The Farm Cemetery
      • The Nek Cemetery
      • Walker's Ridge Cemetery
    • Explore southern war cemeteries
      • Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery and Twelve Tree Copse (New Zealand) Memorial
      • The French War Cemetery and Çanakkale Martyrs Memorial
      • Helles Memorial
      • Lancashire Landing Cemetery
      • Pink Farm Cemetery
      • Redoubt Cemetery
      • Skew Bridge Cemetery
      • V Beach Cemetery
      • Wylie Grove
    • North Beach Anzac commemorative site
      • Panel 1: The Dardanelles
      • Panel 2: The landing
      • Panel 3: Krithia
      • Panel 4: Turkish counter-attack
      • Panel 5: Sick and wounded
      • Panel 6: Lone Pine and the Nek
      • Panel 7: Chunuk Bair
      • Panel 8: Evacuation
      • Panel 9: Defence of Turkey
      • Panel 10: Anzac
    • A landscape of war uncovered
  • Resources
    • Strategic maps of Gallipoli
    • An artist at the Landing—Signaller Silas
      • Biography: Ellis Silas (1885–1972)
      • Silas' drawings: "Crusading at Anzac A.D. 1915"
      • Diary of Ellis Silas
        • Diary extract: May 1915
    • An artist at Gallipoli – Major Hore
      • Biography: L. F. S. Hore MC (1870–1935)
    • Anzac: a national heirloom
    • Teaching about Gallipoli
      • Operation CLICK: Anzac to Kokoda
      • Letters and diaries: two soldiers from an Australian country town – Yass, NSW
      • The Curlewis brothers
    • Anzac Day Services at Gallipoli, Turkey
      • Australian Peace Ambassadors (March 2008)
        • Ailsa Hawkins' Story
        • Emma Slack-Smith's Story
        • Jo Hardy's Story
        • Karen Throssell's Story

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Explore 25 northern war cemeteries

Introduction—the cemeteries and memorials of Anzac

During the Gallipoli campaign at Anzac many battlefield cemeteries were constructed. With war’s end in 1918 and the defeat of Turkey, British units were despatched to the Gallipoli peninsula where they began the task of locating cemeteries, marking graves and burying the unburied dead. This work was carried out initially by British Graves Registration personnel and in the Anzac sector it was overseen by an Australian Gallipoli veteran, Lieutenant Cyril Hughes, a Tasmanian.

In November 1919 Hughes was appointed Director of Works in control of the Imperial War Graves Commission’s (now Commonwealth War Graves Commission) cemetery and memorial construction program on Gallipoli. Under him was a mixed labour force of Turks, Greeks and White Russians, none of whom spoke English. Hughes, in his own words, communicated with them in 'a mixture of Arabic, Turkish, and Greek'. He found that 'the fact that I’m an Australian is better still'. Hughes was also impressed by their capacity for work and remarked 'Thank goodness all my fellows can do about fifteen things'.

For the building work Hughes developed a Turkish quarry on Gallipoli at Ulgardere. According to one authority, the stone there was of ‘that same class as that of which the Homeric walls of Troy were built’. Some of this stone was brought in by lorry but the rest was transported by sea to North Beach where an aerial ropeway was constructed to take it up on to the ridge and down to Lone Pine. As construction work proceeded, the peninsula received its first visitors, although the intention was to keep them firmly away until all work was finished. In April 1920 Hughes wrote of someone who may have been the first Anzac pilgrim:

One old chap managed to get here from Australia looking for his son’s grave; we looked after him and he’s pushed off to Italy now.

Gradually, throughout the early 1920s, the cemeteries and memorials were built to the specifications of the Scottish architect, Sir John Burnet (1857–1938). Burnet’s designs for Gallipoli differed from those used on the Western Front in France and Belgium. The three distinguishing features of the peninsula’s cemeteries are:

  • a walled cross instead of the free standing Cross of Sacrifice
  • stone-faced pedestal grave markers instead of headstones
  • a rubble-walled ha-ha (sunken fence) to channel away fast-flowing flood waters.

Northern Anzac war cemeteries and memorials on the Gallipoli Peninsula

On the Gallipoli Peninsula today are 34 war cemeteries, 25 of which are in the Anzac area. There are a number of memorials to the missing, the largest of which are the Helles Memorial and the Lone Pine Memorial. On Chunuk Bair there is also the New Zealand National Memorial. This is a battle memorial to the New Zealand soldiers who served on Gallipoli.

Locations of both the Northern (Anzac) and Southern (Helles) cemeteries on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Locations of the 25 Northern (Anzac) war cemeteries.

The Gallipoli cemeteries contain 22,000 graves. However, only 9,000 of these are of identified burials with grave markers. Where it is known that a soldier is buried in a particular cemetery but his grave could not be definitely established, he is commemorated in that cemetery by what is termed a ‘special memorial’. The British and Dominion ‘missing’—approximately 27,000 men—are commemorated by name on five memorials:

  • Helles (British, Australian, Indian)
  • Lone Pine (Australian and New Zealand)
  • Twelve Tree Copse
  • Hill 60
  • Chunuk Bair (New Zealand).

About the Commonwealth War Graves Commission


Commonwealth War Graves Commission Banner

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible for marking and maintaining the graves of those members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two world wars, for build ing and maintaining memorials to the dead whose graves are unknown and for providing records and registers of these burials and commemorations, totalling 1.7 million and found in most countries throughout the world. The Commonwealth cemeteries and memorials on the Gallipoli Peninsula are maintained by Commission staff. Enquiries on location of individual burials or commemoration on the Gallipoli Peninsula may be directed to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

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