HISTORY

"V" BEACH is "a sandy strip some 10 yards wide and 350 yards long, backed along almost the whole of its length by a low sandy escarpment about 4 feet high, where the ground falls nearly sheer down to the beach."* Behind it is a concave grassy slope rising (at first very gradually) to the cliff edge between Sedd ul Bahr village and Cape Helles. The cemetery stands at the bottom of the grass slope, almost touching the sand. The landing at "V" Beach, in the early morning of the 25th April, 1915, was to be made by boats containing three companies of the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, followed by the collier "River Clyde" with the rest of the Dublins, the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers, half the 2nd Hampshire Regiment, and other troops. The place was very strongly fortified, and during the 25th the landing was partially carried out at the cost of very heavy casualties. On the morning of the 26th, Colonel Doughty-Wylie and Captain Walford, who were killed during the fight, led the survivors on the beach to the capture of Sedd ul Bahr village and the Old Castle above it. On the evening of the 26th, the main body of the French Corps began to land at "V" Beach, and after the advance on the 27th the front line was nearly two miles beyond it. It was used as the French base during the summer. The cemetery was begun and ended, so far as the burials in 1915 are concerned, during April and May; but after the Armistice 13 graves were concentrated into Row 0. It covers an area of 2,464 square yards, and it contains the graves of 500 sailors and soldiers from the United Kingdom. The unnamed graves are 480 in number, but special memorials are erected to 196 officers and men (nearly all belonging to the units which landed on the 25th April), known or believed to be buried among them. The cemetery is backed by a row of cypresses and a belt of pines, and belts of tamarisk are planted on the North-West and South-East sides. Cypresses and euonymus are among the graves. The Register records particulars of 500 British burials. * Sir Ian Hamilton's Despatch of the 20th May, 1915.

LOCATION

The Cemetery is at the bottom of the grassy slope that rises to the cliff edge between Sedd Ul Bahr village and Cape Helles.

- Killed on V Beach 25th April 1915, aged 49.
- Educated at Highgate school, France and Sandhurst.
- First commissioned 1885; served in Aden, Egypt and India.

- Killed 25th April 1915.

- Killed on V Beach 25th April 1915, aged 36.
- Commissioned 1898; served in the Boer War. DSO for bravery and mentioned in despatches.
- Served in France as Brigade Major 9th Brigade 1914 until wounded on 16th November 1914.
- Posted to 29th Division and killed with Brigadier-General H.E.Napier while attempting to land.

- Killed 26th April 1915, aged 32.
- VC citation London Gazette 22nd June 1915:

" On 26th April 1915, subsequent to a landing having been effected on the beach at a point on the Galliploi penninsula, during which both Brigadier-General and Brigade Major had been killed, Lieutenant Colonel Doughty-Wylie and Captain Walford organised and led an attack through and on both sides of the village of Sedd el Bahr on the old castle at the top of the hill inland. The enemy's position was very strongly held and entrenched, and defended with concealed machine-guns and pom-poms. It was mainly due to the initiative, skill and great gallantry of these two officers that the attack was a complete success. Both were killed in the moment of victory."

Captain G.N.Walford VCs grave at V Beach Cemetery (©Paul Reed)