"Lest We Forget" the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery
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Between December 1921 and December 1937, three hundred burials took place at what was once RAF Hinaidi, at that time the centre of operations for all British Forces in Mesopotamia. The RAF Hinaidi cantonment was built in the southern suburbs of Baghdad and the cemetery was constructed along the southern border of the cantonment on land that is still owned by the British Ministry of Defence. The name of the cemetery, maintained first by the Imperial War Graves Commission and later the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, was originally the Hinaidi RAF (Peace) Cemetery, though its name was later changed to the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery. Breaking down the three hundred burials by Service, 197 were for members of the RAF, 72 for the British Army, 2 for the Royal Navy, 26 for RAF civilian contractors and 1 baby girl whose father was an RAF contractor and who also died and was buried at Ma'Asker, six years after the death of his daughter. Included amongst the buried at Ma'Asker was Sir Gilbert Clayton, then High Commissioner to Iraq, many high-ranking Army and Air Force officers who were veterans of WW1, including 4 flying 'Aces'.
As with its 'big brother' the Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, located ten miles to the north in the centre of Baghdad, maintenance was carried out at Ma'Asker on a regular basis for the next thirty-seven years. Sadly, for reasons that have yet to be explained, no maintenance was carried out at Ma'Asker from 1974 until 2021, despite the fact that the Baghdad (North Gate) cemetery was maintained throughout that period (apart from times of great conflict), with repairs carried out and new headstones made as required. It was only after intense lobbying that the CWGC built a new wall around the cemetery in October 2021, a token effort maybe, but at least it stopped the cemetery from being used as a local rubbish dump as well as a short cut for Iraqi lorries.
Since 2021, little has progressed with regards restoring the cemetery to its former glory, a project that would no doubt have been given top priority by the CWGC / MoD / JCCC had the cemetery been located in France or Belgium. To its credit, the British Embassy in Baghdad has sent staff to Ma'Asker each year since 2021 on or near Armistice Day to lay simple wreaths, lest the whole World forgets the cemetery ever existed. However, I fear it is too late. I'm getting old and there is no-one else to take up the mantle of lobbying the British Authorities to take action. Even a direct appeal to HRH the Princess Royal, President of the CWGC, fell on deaf ears. The only consolation is that the three hundred Englishmen and Englishwomen who gave their lives in the service of their Country more than a century ago never knew that the cemetery in which they lay would be abandoned. It is only their descendants who are suffering.
"Lest We Forget"
Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery
Plot 3 at the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery c1933 The new perimeter wall around the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad, 2023 Rubbish covering fallen headstones at the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad, 2020 Rubbish covering fallen headstones at the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad, 2020 Lonely sunrise over the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, Baghdad
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