Amara War Cemetery

Grave of Sir Victor Horsley at Amarah.
Plan of the cemetery.

The Amara War Cemetery is a military cemetery in Amarah, southern Iraq, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). It contains more than 4,600 graves including three Victoria Cross winners but is now in poor condition as the CWGC have not been able to work in Iraq since 1991.

History

The cemetery is located immediately to the south of one of the branches of the River Tigris where it splits at Amarah in an area that was seized by the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force during the First World War.[1] Amarah became a major hospital centre with medical detachments on both sides of the river and seven general hospitals. The cemetery is now the responsibility of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.[2]

Burials

The cemetery contains 4,621 burials from the First World War, of which more than 3,000 were interred after the end of the war. Only 3,696 of the dead have been identified. In 1933, the headstones were removed after it was found that they were being damaged by salts in the soil and a memorial wall erected instead with the names of the dead engraved upon plaques.[2]

Graves at Amara include the surgeon Sir Victor Horsley, and Victoria Cross winners Sidney William Ware,[3] Edgar Christopher Cookson,[4] and Edward Elers Delaval Henderson.[5] Captain Alfred Wallace Harvey of the Royal Army Medical Corps, who was shot by a sentry from his own side, is also buried at Amara.[6]

Immediately to the south of the British cemetery is the Amara Indian War Cemetery which contains the graves of 5,000 Indian soldiers killed during the Mesopotamian campaign.

Condition

In 2014, commentating on the run-down condition of the cemetery, Iraqi sources urged that the cemetery be restored after neglect caused by the local government and it not being recognised as part of Iraqi heritage. Commentators argued that it was an important site in the history of the local area and a monument to the resistance of local tribesmen to British occupation.[7]

In April 2016, Martin Fletcher of The Times in Amara, reported that the cemetery had seriously deteriorated, with plaques falling from the memorial wall and the Cross of Sacrifice smashed. The perimeter wall and other cemetery infrastructure are also damaged. A man who described himself as the caretaker reported the cross being blown up one night in 2006. The CWGC commented that they had not been able to work in Iraq since 1991, but the cemetery would be restored when conditions allowed.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Reassessing consequences of occupation in Iraq. Wassim Bassem, Al-Monitor, 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 AMARA WAR CEMETERY. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  3. ↑ Sidney William Ware VC. The Comprehensive Guide to the Victoria & George Cross. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  4. ↑ Edgar Christopher Cookson VC, DSO. The Comprehensive Guide to the Victoria & George Cross. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  5. ↑ Edward Elers Delaval Henderson VC. The Comprehensive Guide to the Victoria & George Cross. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  6. ↑ Captain Alfred Wallace Harvey Royal Army Medical Corps. Winkleigh Heroes. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  7. ↑ مقبرة-الانكليز-في-العمارة-حافظت-على Almada Press. 9 September 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  8. ↑ British war graves left to crumble in the dust, Martin Fletcher, The Times, 25 April 2016, pp. 14-15.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Amara War Cemetery.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, May 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.