7th Field Ambulance Cemetery

7th Field Ambulance Cemetery; This cemetery lies to the right off the road leading northwards from the Anzac Commemorative Site about 190 metres in from the road. It was named for the 7th Australian Field Ambulance, which landed on Gallipoli in September 1915. Despite its name, among this cemetery’s 640 burials and commemorations there are only sixty-eight Australians of whom forty-seven are ‘believed to be buried’ here and are commemorated with Special Memorials. Most of the Australian burials occurred during the ‘August offensive’ of 6-10 August 1915, the last major attempt to break out of the initial Anzac position. After the war, over 300 bodies were brought in from fifteen smaller burial grounds in the vicinity.

Padre Frederick Wray, from Rushworth, Victoria, was chaplain to the 4th Australian Brigade at Gallipoli and was with the brigade near Chunuk Bair during the ‘August offensive’. He recorded details of the action on 9 August:

Our forces and Ghurkas and others had gained a small footing on top of Chunuk Bair yesterday morning and had strong supports well up the sides … Our troops advanced up the hill, but not in regular line – a kind of go as you please charge. A few got up to the Turkish trenches, but the supporting ranks were behind, the first ones wilted away. This was in front of the position held by our men, the attack was repulsed.

As the fighting escalated, Chaplain Wray attended to the burial of the increasing number of dead:

Three burials in early morning, three in afternoon in saps [small trenches], six at night … Three men had been buried there and I said a service for these and several other bodies lying about behind the trenches which could not be recovered… burial early, 5 [of the] 13th [Battalion AIF] down on flat behind HQtrs….. Three more burials in afternoon at same place, including Lt McLeod* who died last night at 4th FA [Field Ambulance], shot in stomach.

Like many men on Gallipoli, Chaplain Wray fell ill and was evacuated to Imbros two days after the August offensive.

Second Lieutenant James McLeod, 13th Battalion AIF, died of wounds, 10 August 1915, Special Memorial A42, 7th Field Ambulance Cemetery.

Location Information

The Anzac and Suvla cemeteries are first signposted from the left hand junction of the Eceabat - Bigali Road. From this junction you travel into the main Anzac area. On leaving the Anzac area and heading towards Suvla, after 13.6 km's you will encounter a track on the right which leads to the 7th Field Ambulance Cemetery. The cemetery is on low ground, close under the shelter of a hill between Chailak Dere and Aghyl Dere. It is about 190 metres east of the Anzac-Suvla road.

 Visiting Information

The Cemetery is permanently open and may be visited at any time.

Please note that in the absence of a cemetery register, visitors are advised to locate the Grave/Memorial reference before visiting. This information can be found in the CASUALTY RECORDS within this page.

Historical Information

The eight month campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Commonwealth and French forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.

The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an area soon known as Anzac. On 6 August, further landings were made at Suvla, just north of Anzac, and the climax of the campaign came in early August when simultaneous assaults were launched on all three fronts.

The cemetery was named from the 7th Australian Field Ambulance, which landed on Gallipoli in September 1915, but over 350 of the graves were brought in from earlier cemeteries after the Armistice (the majority of the casualties are therefore not Australian, but mainly 54th (East Anglian) Division). These smaller burial grounds were known as Bedford Ridge, West Ham Gully, Waldron's Point, Essex, Aghyl Dere, Eastern Mounted Brigade, Suffolk, Hampshire Lane Nos. 1 and 2, Australia Valley, 116th Essex, 1/8th Hants, Norfolk, Junction, and 1/4th Northants.

There are now 640 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 276 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate 207 casualties known or believed to be buried among them.