LONE PINE CEMETERY

AIF - 471
UK - 14
NZ - 2
UNIT NOT KNOWN - 499
SPECIAL MEMORIAL - 182

HISTORY

ANZAC is the midmost of the three areas into which the fighting on Gallipoli, and the cemeteries on the Peninsula, are divided. The origin of the name, and the general course of the fighting in 1915, are stated in the Register of the Lone Pine Memorial. Lone Pine Cemetery is the southernmost, except one, in Anzac. The name (derived from a single low pine tree and a song popular in 1915) was applied to the Southern half of a plateau, 120 metres (394 feet) above sea level, at the top of Victoria Gully; and on the 25th April it was reached and passed by part of the 9th Australian Battalion about 8 am, and by other units later. That night it was No Man's Land. On the 26th it was re-occupied by the 4th Battalion, and again it had to be given up at night. It was important as commanding Gaba Tepe, to the South, and the ravines leading up from that part of the coast; and in May, June and July it was a Turkish strong point, known to them as "Kanli Sirt" (Bloody Ridge). The Australians pushed mines towards it from the end of May to the beginning of August; and on the afternoon of the 6th August, after mine explosions and bombardment from land and sea, the 1st Australian Brigade stormed the trenches. By the 10th the Turkish counter-attacks had failed and the position was consolidated. It was held by the 1st Australian Division until the 12th September, and then by the 2nd until the evacuation. The cemetery stands on the plateau, over the original Turkish tunnels. The original small battle cemetery of 46 graves, and the scattered graves brought in from the neighbourhood after the Armistice, form the Eastern plot. At the East end of this is the Lone Pine Memorial (the Register of which has been published), on which appear the names of 4,934 Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fell on the Peninsula or in Gallipoli waters and whose graves are not known. At the West end are the Brown's Dip Plots, to which were removed the graves from the Brown's Dip Cemeteries and others from the vicinity. Lone Pine Cemetery now covers an area (including the Memorial) of 7,578 square yards; and outside this area is a thick belt of dwarf ilex. A lone pine grows in the cemetery. Out of 986 graves, 471 are those of Australian soldiers, two of New Zealand soldiers, 14 of sailors, soldiers or Marines from the United Kingdom, and 499 of men whose unit in our forces could not be ascertained. There are, however, tablets placed here which record the names of 182 Australian soldiers (almost all of whom belonged to the 1st Brigade and fell in August) and one from the United Kingdom, for whom there is evidence of burial in Lone Pine Cemetery or in the cemeteries at Brown's Dip. The Register of Lone Pine Cemetery records particulars of 986 British and Dominion burials. Brown's Dip North and South Cemeteries were in the depression at the head of Victoria Gully, behind the Australian trenches of April-August, 1915. They were made they contained the graves of 149 Australian soldiers. They were removed because of the insecurity of the site.

LOCATION

Lone Pine Cemetery stands on the plateau at the top of Victoria Gully, and is located on the road from Gaba Tepe to Chunuk Blair. At the east end of Lone Pine Cemetery will be found the Lone Pine Memorial, which commemorates Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought on Gallipoli in 1915 and who have no known grave. It is clearly signposted as you come into the ANZAC area.

GRAVES OF INTEREST

- Killed 5/8th August 1915, aged 44.
- From Maitland, NSW.
- Previously wounded on Baby 700 on 25th April 1915, while Major. Promoted to command the battalion in the field.
- Killed in the Turkish counter-attacks on Lone Pine.

- Killed 25th April 1915, aged 19.
- The inscription on his headstone reads:

" Dear is the spot to me, where my beloved son rests. My ANZAC hero. Mother."

- Killed 6/9th September 1915, aged 27.
- The inscription on his headstone reads:

" Oh Gallpoli, thous holdest one of God's noblest. From his loved ones."

- Killed 6/9th August 1915, aged 21.
- One of the few Americans serving at Gallipoli with the AIF; was born in Los Angeles, California.