Beach Cemetery

Beach Cemetery;  (391 burials) is a curved plot 80m in length just above the point of Hell Spit facing the sea and was used throughout the occupation.

This is among the best known and most famous of the Anzac cemeteries, possibly because here is the grave of the best known of all the Anzac soldiers — Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick, 3rd Field Ambulance (plot I, row F, grave 1).

After seeing Simpson’s grave, Sir Roden Cutler VC remarked:

I looked down and found myself standing at the grave of Simpson, the man with the donkey. It is a moment I will take to my grave.

Grave of John Simpson Kirkpatrick

The cemetery was in use from 25 April 1915 and contains 285 Australians, 49 British, 21 New Zealanders, three soldiers from the Ceylon Tea Planters’ contingent and 21 unknowns. The Ceylonese Tea Planters’ numbered about 80 on Gallipoli and they were used by the Anzac Corps Commander, General William Birdwood, as his personal escort and camp guard.

Among other graves here are those of Commander Edward Cater, Royal Navy, HMS Nelson (plot II, row G, grave 5) and Colonel Lancelot Clarke, 12th Battalion (plot I, row B, grave 3).

Cater was a familiar figure to the Anzacs as he was in charge of the landings at Anzac Cove. He won the respect of all for his cool disregard of the enemy shell fire which raked the beach while he assisted others. The story goes that Cater wore a very large monocle and that a group of Australians sought to get a rise out of him by approaching him with their identity discs in their eye. Cater responded by throwing his monocle in the air, catching it in his eye and saying ‘Do that, you blighters’! He was killed by a shell on 7 August 1915.

Colonel Clarke landed with elements of his battalion at North Beach on 25 April 1915. He led them off the beach up the heights beside the Sphinx, amazing many with his fitness:

Odd parties of the 11th and 12th Battalions were scrambling up these gravelly and almost perpendicular crags by any foothold which offered … One of this party, Corporal E W D Laing … clambering breathless up the height, came upon an officer almost exhausted half way up. It was the old Colonel - Clarke of the 12th Battalion. He was carrying his heavy pack, and could scarcely go further. Laing advised him to throw the pack away, but Clarke was unwilling to lose it, and Laing thereupon carried it himself. [Laing and another officer, Margetts, then climbed slowly on until ...] Margetts, reaching the top, found to his astonishment the Colonel already there.

Clarke was killed later in the day. At age 57, he was possible the oldest Australian to die at the landing.

The cemetery, designed by Sir John Burnet, principal architect of the CWGC cemeteries and memorials on the peninsula, is under the control of the CWGC It was registered as a cultural heritage site by the Turkish Ministry of Culture on 14 November, 1980.

Location Information

The Anzac and Suvla cemeteries are first signposted from the left hand junction of the Eceabat- Bigali road. From this junction travel into the main Anzac area.

At 9.8 kms you will find the cemetery on the left hand side of the coast road. Beach cemetery is situated on what was known as Hell Spit, at the Southern point of Anzac Cove. The graves lie between the Kelia - Suvla Road and the beach.

Visiting Information

The Cemetery is permanently open and may be visited at any time. The cemetery is constructed on a very severe slope making wheelchair access impossible.

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.

Beach Cemetery was used from the day of the landing at Anzac, almost until the evacuation. There are 391 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. Special memorials commemorate 11 casualties believed to be buried among them. 22 of the burials are unidentified.