6 Squadron RAF, Ma'Asker & Habbaniya Cemeteries
Remembrance Day 2024 at the
Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad
Though it was not possible to commemorate Remembrance Day this year at the Ma’Asker Al Raschid Cemetery on the traditional date, it was fitting that the UK Defence Attaché in Iraq, Brigadier Graeme Wearmouth, an ex-commanding officer of 2nd Battalion of The Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 SCOTS), led a representation from the UK Embassy in Baghdad to visit Ma'Asker on St Andrew’s Day, the 30th November. Whilst at the cemetery, Brigadier Wearmouth, accompanied by the UK Royal Air Force Sergeant DCLO (Diplomatic Communications Liaison Officer) and the UK Chargé d’Affaires in Baghdad, Ms. Rosy Cave, honoured the three hundred men and women who died in Iraq whilst in the service of their country by laying wreaths at the headstone of Lieutenant George Donald Edward Heather of the North Lancashire (Loyal) Regiment.
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In spite of being severely damaged and moved from its original position, Lieutenant Heather’s headstone is still in close proximity to his grave in the eastern half of Plot 3, as you can see on the c1930 photograph immediately below this text where I have marked the position of his grave. The photograph was taken from the north-eastern corner of Plot 3 looking towards the north-western corner of the cemetery. On the day of his death, Lieutenant Heather was flying as the observer/gunner in a 30 Squadron DH9a two-seater light bomber when it crashed at the village of Malula, east of Kirkuk (cause of the accident unknown). Both Heather and his pilot Flying Officer Marius Penny were killed in the crash. The men’s bodies were transported one hundred and seventy miles south to RAF Hinaidi where they were buried side by side in the cemetery the following day (Plot 3 Row I Grave 2 and Plot 3 Row I Grave 3 respectively). At the time of his death, Lieutenant Heather was attached to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment of the RAF Levies.​​
​Below is a selection of photographs taken during the St Andrew’s Day wreath-laying ceremony at the Ma'Asker Al Raschid cemetery.
Nine of the graves at the Ma'Asker Al Raschid Cemetery (representing 12.5% of all British Army burials at Ma’Asker) are for men who were serving with Scottish Regiments at the time of their death, with eight men serving with the 2nd Battalion of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) and one man serving with the City of Glasgow Regiment, (then the ‘Highland Light Infantry’). Though only 71 of the original 300 headstones remain in an identifiable condition, two of the nine Scottish Regiment headstones have survived the ravages of time, namely Private James McCann of the Scottish Rifles and Captain Michael Wallace of the Highland Light Infantry. The photograph below shows Brigadier Graeme Wearmouth standing in front of the remains of the headstone for Captain Michael Hugh Wallace, who died from Cerebral Malaria in the RAF Hinaidi General Hospital in Baghdad on the 2nd August 1929 and was buried in the Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery (later renamed the Ma’Asker Al Raschid Cemetery) in Plot 1 Row A Grave 9).
