Commonwealth War Graves in Iraq
WW1 Aviation & 6 Squadron RAF
Amara War Cemetery
History of Amara War Cemetery
In late 1914, in the early stages of the British Mesopotamian campaign to secure the Persian oilfields, the southern Iraqi city of Basra was seized. With the aim of eventually taking control of Baghdad, the allied expeditionary force (British and Indian) advanced up the river Tigris, reaching Amara on the 3rd June 1915 where a hospital centre was established. The advance towards Baghdad was short-lived, however, coming to an abrupt halt when the allied forces were surrounded and trapped by the Ottoman Turks between Amara and Kut in a siege of massive proportions. In what was later described as the worst defeat of the Allies during WW1, the whole of the allied forces surrendered to the Turks on the 29th April 1916, with the survivors forced to march in captivity to Eastern Turkey, losing thousands of men during the arduous journey from overwork and cholera. By that time, the burials at Amara had exceeded 4,000 and the number of medical units, constructed on both sides of the Tigris, had increased. By April 1917 there were seven general hospitals and a few smaller medical units based at Amara.
In total there are 4,621 WW1 burials at the Amara War Cemetery, with more than 3,000 bodies brought into the cemetery after the Armistice and 925 of the graves unable to be identified. In 1933, every headstone was removed from the cemetery due to salts in the soil that were causing them to deteriorate. In their place a screen wall comprising nine panels (the central panel bearing only the name) was erected along the western perimeter, with the names of the buried engraved upon them, grouped by Service type and regiment.
Note that Plot XXV is a Collective Grave, the individual burial places within this are not known. There are also seven non-war graves in the cemetery.
Amara War Cemetery - Update 2025
Amara War Cemetery is situated in south-east Iraq, 230 miles SE of Baghdad, 100 miles NW of Basra and 320 miles from the Persian Gulf (GPS coordinates 31.84465 47.16047). Of the 4,621 burials recorded at Amara, the CWGC website database has identified 3,704 names of servicemen who lost their lives and were buried there. (Note that the number 3,704 is 8 names more than the official figure of 4,621 - 925 = 3,696). In looking at the database the only suggestion I have for the variation in numbers is the eight men whose rank was specified as 'Follower' (see extract below), though I'm not sure what this means.
The cemetery at Amara has not fared well over time, with few identifiable features remaining. The Great Cross has all but been destroyed as has the War Stone and the headstones were removed in 1933 due to erosion caused by salts in the cemetery soil. With the road leading to the original entrance now cut off by a large carpark, access is effectively hidden from view, though there is a caretaker's gatehouse hut at the north-eastern corner of the cemetery. The screen wall has recently been repaired as several of the panels were missing or incomplete a couple of years ago. I have attached below photographs taken in 2021 by the (then) UK Defence Attaché to Iraq, Brigadier Adam McRae, which show some of the damage and also photographs taken by the local maintenance contractor in early September 2025, by which time significant repairs had been made to the screen wall. It can be seen that all 64 memorial panels are intact, as is the central section which bears the name of the Amara War Cemetery.
There is very little evidence of the Amara (Left Bank) Indian War Cemetery, located to the immediate south of the Amara War Cemetery (see satellite image below). Bordered to its south by a water park, the Missan Fun-fair City, it is hard to imagine that the small area of wasteland is the final resting place of about 5,000 Indian graves.
Amara War Cemetery - Now and Then
Below are three images. The first is a diagram giving the location, shape and Plot / grave allocation, drawn to a scale that is specified at the bottom of the diagram. The second image is the present-day (2025) satellite view of the cemetery, showing that, apart from the north-west corner, the overall footprint remains the more or less the same, though the north-western corner has been cut off, possibly impacting the security of some of the graves in Plots XXV, XXVII, XXVIII and XXIII. In addition, half of the western perimeter wall has now taken up by the screen wall memorial. Below the first two images is a composite of the satellite photograph overlaid by the original plan. This will enable anyone visiting the cemetery to determine the exact location of any grave.
Amara War Cemetery - Dimensions
Using the Map developers website and tracing the approximate outline of the original cemetery on the satellite image, the Map Developers website calculated the area of the Amara War Cemetery to be 24,240 square metres or 260,921 square feet, equivalent to 6 acres or 2.42 hectares (see image immediately below). This figure compares favourably with the second composite image, where I determined the individual dimensions using the official scale on the Commonwealth War Graves diagram of the Amara War Cemetery to calculate the total area as being 24,489 square metres or 263,600 square feet, equivalent to 6.05 acres or 2.45 hectares. Using the scale on the CWGC plan, I calculated the length of the perimeter walls is 2,012 feet or 614 metres.
Amara War Cemetery - Screen Wall 2022
In 2021 when the Defence Attaché from the UK Embassy in Baghdad visited the Amara War cemetery, the screen wall was found to be in disrepair, with several panels fallen from the wall and others poorly patched with cement in situ. Until recently it was not certain how things had changed since then, as it has not been deemed safe for Commonwealth War Graves Commission staff to visit the site. I have attached several photographs taken in 2021 and one of the Great Cross taken some years ago before it was deliberately blown up.
Amara War Cemetery - Screen Wall 2025
In August and September 2025, I received several requests via this website for information regarding the present condition of the Screen Wall and also with regards specific names of the dead on the memorial panels. I approached the Area Director Africa & Asia at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to see if he could arrange for current photographs of the panels to be taken and he kindly asked the local contractor / caretaker to carry this out on the CWGC's behalf. From the photographs that came back I produced three composite photos that I have attached below. It can clearly be seen that significant restoration work has been carried out and that all of the 64 panels are now in place on the wall where they should be (numbered 01 to 64 from south to north). I have overlaid the first photograph with individual images of some panels. I will add more as and when I receive them.
Amara War Cemetery - Existing Artefacts
A small number of cemetery fragments are kept in the gardener's hut on the north-eastern corner of the cemetery. An old visitors' book and original cemetery documentation are also able to be viewed, including a comprehensive plan of the cemetery dated March 1919 as well as the official register of burials printed by the CWGC in 1930. If you ever get to visit the cemetery, the name of the Cemetery Manager is Mr Hasan Ahtif Mousa.
