6 Squadron Graves at Abandoned Ma'Asker Cemetery in Iraq

6 Squadron spent seven years based at RAF Hinaidi (apart from a posting to Mosul between the 19th May 1924 and the 20th October 1926), leaving RAF Hinaidi for the last time on the 28th October 1929, bound for Ismailia in Egypt. Operating from RAF Hinaidi was dangerous and keeping the peace in Iraq in driving back invading rebels through strafing, bombing and working closely with the RAF Armoured Car Companies came at a cost. A total of seventeen 6 Squadron men died during in Iraq during that time and were buried at the Hinaidi RAF Cemetery (name later changed to the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery). The cemetery was maintained by the Imperial War Graves Commission and later the Commonwealth War Graves Commission but by the mid nineteen-sixties it was abandoned, despite the fact that the larger CWGC cemetery at Baghdad (North Gate), a mere ten miles away, has always been maintained by the CWGC. Currently, of the seventeen 6 Squadron graves at Ma'Asker cemetery in Iraq, only four headstones remain in identifiable condition out of the 77 headstones that have survived, the names (in burial date sequence) being AC2 William McCormack, Cpl WEilliam Ford, AC1 Bertram C Pilcher and F/O Alexander B Kay. Attached is a summary of the seventeen 6 Squadron men and the reason for their deaths as well as photos of the four surviving headstones.

NOTE: Though seventeen (17) men from 6 Squadron were buried at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, a total of twenty-five (25) men from 6 Squadron died whilst serving in Iraq, five of them (5) buried at Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery before RAF Hinaidi was operational and three (3) buried at the Habbaniya War Cemetery after the British Military operations moved from RAF Hinaidi to RAF Habbaniya in January 1937 and the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery was no longer used, even though the land upon which it stood remained the property of the British Ministry of Defence to be maintained in perpetuity under a special arrangement by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The name of every 6 Squadron man who died in service from 1914 to the present day is listed on the squadron's Roll of Honour.

The 6 Squadron men buried at the Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery were:

F/O R D C Palmer DFC, F/O H Hutchinson, AC2 P Carter, F/O R N Essell DFC and Flt/Lt E R Tempest MC DFC

and the 6 Squadron men buried at the Habbaniya War Cemetery were:

P/O D C Burbridge, LAC S J Butchart and F/O N R P Clift

6 Squadron RAF Burials at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad

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  6 Squadron F/O Alexander Bruce Kay headstone at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery

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  6 Squadron Cpl William Ford headstone at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery

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  6 Squadron AC2 William McCormack headstone at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery

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  6 Squadron AC1 Bertram C Pilcher headstone at Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery