| Cemetery
Location |
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| Amara is a town on the left bank of the Tigris some
520 kilometres from the sea. The War Cemetery is a little east of
the town between the left bank of the river and the Chahaila Canal. |
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| Cemetery
Information |
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| Amara was occupied by the Mesopotamian
Expeditionary Force on the 3rd June 1915, and it became at once a
hospital centre. Accommodation, on both banks of the river, was
greatly increased during 1916, and in April 1917, seven British and
Indian General Hospitals, as well as other medical units, were
stationed at Amara. Besides the "Old Cemetery" (which
became the present War Cemetery), other cemeteries were made at
Amara for Hindu, Sikh and Muhammadan soldiers of the Indian Army and
for Turkish prisoners of war. The graves brought in from other
cemeteries and from the battlefields numbered in excess of
3,000.
The burial grounds or battlefields from which
British graves were brought into Amara include, among other places
made famous by the War:
ABU RUMMAN MOUNDS, occupied in April 1916;
ES SINN, where Field Ambulances were in September 1915.
FALLAHIYA and SANDY RIDGE, Field Ambulance positions facing each
other across the river, North-East of Sannaiyat.
IMAM AL MANSUR, a position occupied in December 1916; ORAH, which
became the Advanced Base in February, 1916.
"R19", near the right bank, between Kut and Bassouia.
SANNAIYAT, passed in September 1915, attacked in April 1916, and
taken in February 1917.
AMARA NEW CEMETERY, on the right bank, which was begun in February
1918, and used until July 1920; it contained 71 graves.
SHAIKH SAAD OLD CEMETERY, where 473 British officers and men were
buried.
In 1933 all of the headstones were removed from
this cemetery as salts in the soil caused a rapid deterioration of
the stone used. Instead a screen wall was erected with all of the
names engraved upon it. |
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| Additional
Information |
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| Photograph
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| Photo
Archive |
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| Among those
commemorated here are: |
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| Other
photographs of the cemetery: |
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Silent
Cities WW1 Cemeteries website ŠPaul Reed 2006-2007
Email: info@ww1cemeteries.co.uk
Site Last Updated: 19 August 2008
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