4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery

4th BATTALION PARADE GROUND CEMETERY

AIF - 107
UK - 3
UNIDENTIFIED - 6

HISTORY

The 4th Battalion Australian Imperial Force (AIF) was drawn from New South Wales. From the end of April to the beginning of June 1915, it buried its dead, and six from other units, in a cemetery on the road from Wire Gully to Anzac Cove (Bridges Road). This burial ground became known as the 4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery; and it was enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration of 76 graves from two smaller cemeteries and from the surrounding battlefields. The cemetery now contains the graves of 107 soldiers from Australia, three sailors or Marines from the United Kingdom, and six men whose unit in our forces is not known. Seven of the graves are unidentified by name. The area is 636 square yards. On either side is a thick belt of shrubs, and at the back a belt of trees. The Register records particulars of 116 War Graves. The two cemeteries concentrated here were the following:- The 3RD BATTALION PARADE GROUND CEMETERY, a little way to the South on the opposite side of the valley, containing the graves of 31 soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, two of whom fell on the 25th April and the remainder on the 19th-23rd May 1915 (in the Defence of Anzac). The 22ND BATTALION PARADE GROUND CEMETERY, a little way South-East and behind Johnston's Jolly, containing the graves of 13 soldiers of the 3rd Battalion AIF and three others, who fell on the 16th-20th May.

LOCATION

4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery is on the track from the Wire Gully Sector of the front line back to Anzac Cove, 300 metres from the road, and is not accessible by car. It is best reached by parking at Courtney's & Steele's Post and walking. Signs point through the bush and down a goat track, which although difficult is not impossible.

GRAVES OF INTEREST

Buried here are what C.E.W.Bean called "two of the best leaders we ever had":

Colonel H.N.McLaurin 1st Brigade HQ AIF

- Commander of 1st Australian Brigade.
- Took a hill on 26th April which was thereafter known as McLaurin's Hill.
- Killed by sniper on 27th April 1915, aged 37.
- Buried in McLaurin's Hill; grave moved here in 1919.

Lieutenant Colonel A.J.O.Thompson VD 4th Bn AIF

- Killed 26th April 1915, aged 50.
- Commanding officer of 4th Battalion, killed leading a charge on Lone Pine.
- His adjutant attempted to bring in the body, but it was not recovered until the armistice of 24th May; Thompson was buried on the battlefield and moved here in 1919.