About Lone Pine Cemetery
Lone Pine Cemetery in the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey is the final resting place of 1,167 Commonwealth troops, 504 of whom are unidentified. The troops fought in the Gallipoli Campaign, which was an eight month effort during World War I to remove the Ottoman Empire from the war.
History of Lone Pine Cemetery
Named after a single tree that grew there and stood throughout the conflict, Lone Pine Cemetery is located on the site of the Battle of Lone Pine, in the former Anzac sector of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. At the beginning of the conflict, in April 1915, Australian forces had briefly managed to take this strategically important location before Turkish forces recaptured it and held it for several months.
On 6 August 1915, Australian forces made a second attempt at taking Lone Pine. The attack was successful and by 10 August, they had captured the area. They would hold it until they were evacuated in December.
The cemetery was constructed at the end of the campaign by the New Zealand government. It was greatly enlarged after the Armistice by moving isolated graves into it and consolidating other smaller cemeteries in the area, such as Brown’s Dip North and South Cemeteries.
Lone Pine Cemetery Today
The memorial stands on the site of the fiercest fighting at Lone Pine and overlooks the whole front line of May 1915. Lone Pine Cemetery is also the home of the Lone Pine Memorial.
The cemetery is permanently open and can be visited at any time. There are online casualty records where visitors can look up who has been buried there.
Getting to Lone Pine Cemetery
The Lone Pine Memorial is at the east end of Lone Pine Cemetery. The Anzac and Suvla cemeteries are first signposted from the left hand junction of the Eceabat – Bigali road. Lone Pine Cemetery stand on the plateau at the top of Victoria Gully.
