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I am gradually adding photographs to my website for individual panels of the Amara War Cemetery Screen Memorial Wall. So far there are photographs for seven panels (see attached images), Panel 09, Panel 13, Panel 15, Panel 29, Panel 32, Panel 47 and Panel 49. I will update this post and the Amara section of this website as and when new photos come to hand.

I am pleased to announce that five of my books are now able to be purchased worldwide via the Amazon / Kindle printing distribution network, resulting in greater availability and cheaper postage costs. Books can be purchased in paperback or E-Book format. The book titles are Seven Days in April , Leaning on a Lamp Post , A Man of Many Letters , Over the Western Front and Rising from the Flanders Mud (see attached images of the five front covers). Leaning on a Lamp Post A Man of Many Letters Over the Western Front Seven Days in April to Solve a Murder Rising from the Flanders Mud

I am waiting on an update from the CWGC as to the current condition of the screen wall (4 large memorial sections of eight panels apiece on either side of a central Naming section) at the Amara War Cemetery in Iraq and hope to be able to update my website in a couple of weeks. In the meantime I have just come across these photos in my files, showing that in 2020 the overall condition of the panels was reasonable and that the damage appeared to be confined to the first two sections, viewed from the south. The screen wall was built along the whole of the eastern side of the cemetery in 1933 when the original headstones were removed because of severe erosion due to water and elements in the soil. Update 26th September 2025 I have received an update from the the CWGC as to the current condition of the Screen Wall at Amara. Restoration has been carried out over the past couple of years and the whole of the Screen Wall Memorial is now in good condition. Visit the Amara section of this website or read this POST for photos that were taken a few days ago . Central Panel of the Screen Wall at the Amara War Cemetery, Iraq Screen Wall at the Amara War Cemetery Damaged sections of the Screen Wall at the Amara War Cemetery, Iraq

By chance I came across this photograph of a group of servicemen who by the look of their uniforms were serving with the Royal Flying Corps. You can imagine my surprise when I realised that the young man sitting cross-legged on the left of the photo was non other than my grandfather, 1AM Frederick Johnstone. I have other 'studio' group portraits of 6 Squadron men but none as clear as this one. Seeing that my grandfather had yet to be promoted to corporal in this photograph I would estimate the date as being early 1917 and the place Abeele on the border between Belgium and France. My book, For God, England and Ethel is the true story of my grandfather's experiences serving with 6 Squadron on the Western Front during WW1. My grandfather 1AM Frederick Johnstone of 6 Squadron c1917 (bottom left)

On the first day of the Battle of Messines, 7th June 1917, 6 Squadron experienced the highest number of flying casualties for any single day of the First World War, a statistic not to be equalled in the 103 years since the squadron was formed. Over a few short hours, four men were killed, three were injured and one was taken prisoner of war. The crew of one of the aircraft lost that day (RE8 Serial No A3214) were reported as 'Killed in Action', though their bodies were never returned to the Squadron for burial at Lijssenhoek Military Cemetery, as was customary for 6 Squadron. Instead, the final resting place of Sergeant Louis Gray (pilot) was the Aeroplane Cemetery on the road between Ypres and Zonnebeke and that of 2nd Lt Morrice Halliday (Gray's observer) several kilometres to the north at the Poelcappelle Military Cemetery, both cemeteries situated a long way from the site of the crash in German-held territory near Hill 60. With the help of CWGC's recent release of a large number of grave registration documents and other official records, I can now reveal exactly what happened to the two airmen. Sometime after the RE8 of Sergeant Gray and Lieutenant Halliday was brought down in flames by German anti-aircraft fire and crashed on enemy territory in the vicinity of Hill 60, the bodies of the two men were retrieved by the allies and their aircraft destroyed by shellfire to prevent it falling into enemy hands. At that time, Lt Halliday's body was unable to be identified and he was buried in a makeshift graveyard by the side of the road leading to Sanctuary Wood just to the east of the village of Zillebeke (Map Grid Ref: 28.I.23.c.85.60), along with the bodies of six soldiers. Only one of the soldiers was identified and none of the graves bore headstones. It is unclear where Sergeant Gray was buried, though it would have been close to the village of Zillebeke and in a makeshift graveyard (see notes below). With some 26,000 allied casualties sustained during the first day of the Battle of Messines, little priority would have been given to the organisation of burying the dead. The bodies of the two men remained undisturbed until after the war, when the Imperial War Graves Commission determined that the remains of the fallen should not be repatriated to the UK but instead honoured where they fell, but in properly designed cemeteries with standardised headstones, no matter the rank of the serviceman. A department was formed in the name of 'Concentration of Graves (Exhumation and Reburials)', whose task was to exhume the remains from informal roadside burial grounds and small cemeteries and rebury them in existing or newly-created cemeteries, each burial marked with a headstone. In addition, every effort would be taken to identify those bodies initially designated as an 'Unknown Soldier'. In accordance with the new directive, on the 14th June 1920, the bodies of sixteen British soldiers (9 ‘unknown’ and 7 identified) as well as 1 Royal Flying Corps sergeant were exhumed from a number of small burial grounds around Zillebeke and reburied collectively in the Aeroplane Cemetery, located just to the north-east of Ypres on the N332 road to Zonnebeke (Map Grid Ref: 28.I.05.b.2.8). Sergeant Louis Gray was identified as the Royal Flying Corps sergeant. At the same time, twenty bodies from the Bedford House Cemetery (Enclosure No 5) and twenty-three from the Lock 8 Cemetery (Map Grid Ref: 28.I.26.c - approximately 2.5 kilometres south-west of Zillebeke) were also exhumed and concentrated into the Aeroplane Cemetery. Three years later, on the 31st October 1923, the bodies of the servicemen buried with 2nd Lt Morrice Halliday at the informal cemetery 500 metres east of Zillebeke, were exhumed, along with 2nd Lt Halliday, and taken to the cemetery at Poelkapelle. After further investigations, the identities of four of the seven bodies were determined, including that of Lt Mortice Halliday, and the men were re-buried with appropriately carved headstones. The mystery has been solved. Mystery solved of the deaths of Sergeant Gray and Lieutenant Halliday, who served and died with 6 Squadron RAF on the 7th June 1917, the first day of the Battle of Messines

Whilst researching the services history of Edwin Ffoulkes-Jones, a man who served with the Royal Air Force in both WW1 and WW2, I came across an incident that took place in October 1920 which involved [then] Flying Officer Ffoulkes-Jones. Whilst flying Bristol F2b Serial No: D8051 on an operation over Kufa on the 19th October, 170 km south of Baghdad, he was caught in a sandstorm and crashed. Though Ffoulkes-Jones was uninjured, his aircraft was destroyed. The following day, Flying Officer A H Beach left 6 Squadron's base at Hinaidi (near Baghdad), flying another F2b Serial No: D7844, and flew to the crash site to pick up Ffoulkes-Jones and take him back to the squadron, sitting in the observer's cockpit. Having covered less than half the distance (53 km north of Kufa and over the village of Hillah), the engine cut out and the aircraft crashed. The pilot was uninjured but Ffoulkes-Jones received a deep laceration to his left knee. D7844 was later recovered and rebuilt, remaining in service with 6 Squadron until the 31st May 1922 when it crashed on landing at Sulermanejeh (144 km from the railhead at Kyri - 288 km NNE Baghdad). The aircraft was destroyed, its pilot Flt Lt F N Hudson died of his injuries and his observer Flt Lt E Drudge seriously injured. To demonstrate how dangerous it was to fly in peacetime RAF, this accident happened only two weeks after a 6 Squadron F2b (Serial No: D7845) suffered engine failure on take-off and stalled into the ground when the pilot attempted to turn back at 100 feet. The aircraft burst into flames and both pilot (Flying Officer L C Hooton) and observer (AC2 G C Butler) were killed outright. Shown below is a 6 Squadron line-up of Bristol F2b fighters, the photograph taken most likely at Hinaidi in early October 1920. The third F2b from the left is D8051, the aircraft that FO Ffoulkes-Jones crashed whilst flying an a sandstorm. Line-up of 6 Squadron Bristol FB2 Fighters, taken at RAF Hinaidi, Baghdad, in early October 1920

I have just added a five-page breakdown of the 183 RAF men so far identified as being buried at Hinaidi RAF Cemetery in Baghdad, Iraq. Information provided is the date of death, Full name, Rank at time of death, RAF Unit, Military and Civil honours, cause of death and in a few cases the exact grave location. Shown below is an image of the first page. I will soon be adding the full military service details of the forty-one RAF officers who are buried ay Hinaidi. List of the 197 RAF men buried at the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery (formerly known as the Hinaidi RAF Cemetery)

The start of the project to restore the CWGC cemetery in Baghdad - the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, formerly known as the Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery On the 2nd August, in an 'Official' letter written to the 6 Squadron Association from the office of the Defence Services Secretary, it was confirmed that the Ministry of Defence does own the site of the Ma' Masker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery - formerly known as the Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery - and that it [the site] is managed on the MoD's behalf under a commercial arrangement with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Though this is indeed good news, the Defence Services Secretary staff officer who wrote the letter stressed that due to ongoing instability in Iraq, the MoD will be unable to request the CWGC to visit, inspect and arrange maintenance of the cemetery until such time as the situation improves. Pictured is a an aerial photograph of Baghdad as it would have looked in the nineteen-twenties.

Burial Service at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, formerly the Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery The Daily Telegraph (UK) recently published an article on the grave restoration works currently nearing completion at the Habbaniya War Cemetery, 60 miles west of Baghdad. In returning the two hundred and ninety headstones back to their former glory (173 WW2 burials and 117 non-world-war burials). In December 2018, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission commissioned stonemasons at its operations base in Beaurains, France, to produce new headstones for all of the graves (non-world-war burials as well as WW2 burials). According to the article, this work was able to be carried out following an improvement in the political stability and security situation in Iraq. The fact that the war cemetery at Habbaniya lies inside an Iraqi military air base makes it a secure place to carry out repairs. Local contractors started work in Iraq in March 2019 and the cemetery restoration is nearing completion. This is encouraging news for the abandoned Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery in southern Baghdad where three hundred and one non-world-war graves have been in desperate need of protection and restoration for many years. Like Habbaniya, the cemetery at Hinaidi lies inside an Iraqi air base and like Habbaniya, the 301 non-world-war burials being for 197 Royal Air Force personnel, 73 British Army personnel (including the isolated grave of Sir Gilbert Clayton, British High Commissioner to Iraq in 1929), 2 Royal Navy personnel and 29 civilians. Pictured above is a photograph taken of the Hinaidi RAF Cemetery c1925 (with the grave of LAC John Bliss of No 6 Armoured Car Company - who died from multiple burns on the 7th October 1924) when only half of the first Plot had been used. Bliss's burial was the 122nd at Hinaidi.

For those interested in the original (provisional) design and perimeter boundary of the Hinaidi Cantonment that was drawn up in 1932, I have added it to my website under the 'RAF Hinaidi' tab. I have also included a 2019 Google Maps aerial photograph which shows that most of the roads still exist despite the changes made to the air base since its control was handed over to the Iraqi Air Force in 1961. I have also indicated the location of the Hinaidi RAF Peace cemetery, just inside the perimeter of the Hinaidi cantonment. Site Plan of RAF Hinaidi, Baghdad, Iraq

Ben Lovegrave has kindly allowed me to use this photograph from the 55 (Bomber) Squadron archives. It was taken of Plot 3 at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery (formerly Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery) and shows how meticulously the cemetery was laid out and how well tended the graves were before the cemetery was abandoned. 1930 wide angle view of Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad (formerly the Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery)

For those interested in knowing the original design and grave layout for the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery (formerly known as the Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery), here is a 1964 diagram that was produced by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission - Southern Region in 1964. It shows that the cemetery had two entrances as well as a small building just to the south of the western entrance, designated as "gardener's quarters". Apparently, the same man (an Iraqi local) tended the graves for many years. Official 1965 Commonwealth War Graves Commission plan of the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery (formerly the Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery)