COURTNEY'S & STEELE POST CEMETERY

UK - 4
AIF - 60
NZ - 1
UNIDENTIFIED - 160

HISTORY

Courtney's Post was, according to Bean, "... a steep scrubby recess in the gully side," (C.E.W.Bean The Official History of Australia in the War, Vol I. page 284-285) immediately South-West of Quinn's Post, towards the Northern end of the original Anzac line. It was named after Lieutenant Colonel Richard E. Courtney, C.B., V.D., who brought the 14th Australian Infantry Battalion to it on the 27th April 1915. Steel's Post (officially known as Steele's Post) was next to it on the South-West, " a still steeper niche, of which the top was a sheer landslide of gravel " (Bean op cit); it was named from Major T. H. Steel, 14th Battalion. Both these positions were occupied on the 25th April 1915, and never relinquished until the evacuation. The cemetery contains the graves of six identified soldiers from Australia, one identified Marine, and 160 officers and men whose names and units are not known. Special memorials are erected to 54 soldiers from Australia, two Marines and one sailor of the Royal Naval Division and one soldier from New Zealand, who fell in April and May 1915, and are believed to be buried here. The area covered by the cemetery is 633 square yards. It is protected at the sides and the back by a thick belt of shrubs. It stands over extensive tunnels made in 1915. The Register records particulars of 65 War Graves. All the graves in Courtney's and Steel's Post Cemetery with the exception of five, in which four men of the Royal Marine Light Infantry and one soldier of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force are buried, are those of soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force. 

LOCATION

The cemetery lies west of the road along the former front line on MacLaurin's Ridge. It is well signposted as you come into the main ANZAC area.

GRAVES OF INTEREST