Walker's Ridge Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery
Encyclopedia
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
.
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.
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.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission 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...
cemetery located near Suvla Bay in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. It contains the remains of Allied soldiers killed during the Battle of Gallipoli
Battle of Gallipoli
The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign or the Battle of Gallipoli, took place at the peninsula of Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916, during the First World War...
.
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
Harold Bridgwood Walker
Lieutenant General Sir Harold Bridgwood Walker KCB, KCMG, DSO was an English general who led Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War...
, 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.
Notable graves
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 in the Anzac battlefield on the Gallipoli peninsula. The name derives from the Afrikaans word for a "mountain pass" but the terrain itself was a perfect bottleneck...
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.