Quinn's Post Cemetery

Quinn's Post Cemetery; Quinn’s Post was established on the afternoon of 25 April 1915 by a New Zealand machine-gun crew but was taken over by Australians the following day. On 29 April, Captain Hugh Quinn of the 15th Battalion AIF, after whom the post was named, took over command of the position that quickly earned a reputation for being the most dangerous place on Anzac. At 2.30am on that day Chaplain Frederick Wray made the first of almost daily trips to bury the dead at Quinn’s. His diary during the early days of the campaign revealed the frequency of his visits.

April 28 – At 12.30 reached 14th lines on Quinn’s Corner… at 2.30am buried 29, including two NZ officers.

April 30 – Went up to Quinn’s Corner and buried 5 men.

May 1 – Buried 1 man at Gully cemetery and 9 at Quinn’s Corner.

May 2 – Buried 7 at Gully cemetery and 3 at Quinn’s Corner

May 3 – An awful day… The 16th were enfiladed by machine guns and did not hold their trenches… the 16th lost 400 out of 600, the 13th 200… Saw a sniper get 7 out of 8 at Quinn’s Corner and he got Lt Binnie… I buried 8, including Lts Binnie and Freeman at Quinn’s Corner.

Chaplain Frederick William Wray, PR00247, AWM

The post came under repeated attacks throughout the month and on 29 May 1915 Major Quinn was killed there when the Turks temporarily broke into the position. He was later buried in Shrapnel Valley Cemetery.

There are 16 identified burials in Quinn’s Post Cemetery of Australian Light Horsemen who died in the diversionary attack launched from Quinn’s on 7 August 1915. In June 1915 Chaplain Walter Dexter remarked:

Many of our graves are nameless and hundreds of those posted as missing are dead and buried by the Turks.

[Chaplain Walter Ernest Dexter, diary, PR00248, AWM]

Of the 473 burials in Quinn’s Post Cemetery 294 are unidentified. Headstones and Special Memorials record the names of 166 Australians who are buried or ‘believed to be buried’ here.

Location Information

The Anzac and Suvla cemeteries are first signposted from the left hand junction of the Eceabat-Bigali road. From this junction you should travel into the main Anzac area. After 11.4 km's, the cemetery will be found on the left.

Visiting Information

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

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.

Quinn's Post was established on the afternoon of the 25 April by a New Zealand machine-gun crew. In the coming months, the post was held by a number of different Australian and New Zealand units and was the subject of incessant attacks and continual hand-to-hand fighting with the Turkish post opposite, who knew it as 'Bomba Sirt' (Bomb Ridge). The post was named from Major Hugh Quinn of the 15th Battalion, Australian Infantry, who was killed there during a fierce attack on 29 May. Major Quinn is buried in Shrapnel Valley Cemetery.

The original cemetery was made after the Armistice by the concentration of 225 isolated graves, all unidentified, into Rows E to I. Rows A to D were added later. The graves from Pope's Hill Cemetery, and six other graves found later, were brought into a plot, at the north-east end. Pope's Hill Cemetery was at the foot of Pope's Hill, where the track turned up to Quinn's Post. The hill was named from Lt. Col. H. Pope, then commanding the 16th Australian Battalion, which reached it on 25 April.

There are now 473 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 294 of the burials are unidentified. Special memorials record the names of 64 soldiers, most of them Australian, who were known or believed to have been buried in Quinn's Post Cemetery or Pope's Hill Cemetery.