6 Squadron Graves at Abandoned Ma'Asker Cemetery in Iraq

6 Squadron spent seven years 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 and were buried at the Hinaidi RAF Cemetery (name later changed to the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery). Initially the cemetery on land owned by the Ministry of Defence 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 on site in identifiable condition, 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.

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

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

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

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

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