The Amara War Cemetery is a First World War British

military cemetery A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. Definition The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to be ...

in Amara, now known as Amarah, southern Iraq, that is the responsibility of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). It contains more than 4,600 graves including three recipients of the Victoria Cross but is now in poor condition as the CWGC have not been able to work in Iraq since 1991.

Location

The cemetery is located immediately to the south of one of the branches of the

River Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert, Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empti ...

where it splits at Amarah in an area that was seized by the

Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force The Mesopotamian campaign was a campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I fought between the Allies represented by the British Empire, troops from Britain, Australia and the vast majority from British India, against the Central Po ...

during the First World War. Amarah became a major hospital centre with medical detachments on both sides of the river and seven general hospitals. The cemetery is now the responsibility of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.AMARA WAR CEMETERY.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 27 April 2016.

Burials

The cemetery contains 4,621 burials from the First World War, of which more than 3,000 were interred after the end of the war. Only 3,696 of the dead have been identified. In 1933, the grave headstones were removed after it was found that they were being damaged by salts in the soil and a memorial wall erected instead with the names of the dead engraved upon plaques. Graves at Amara include the surgeon

Sir Victor Horsley ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

, and Victoria Cross recipients

Sidney William Ware Sidney William Ware VC (11 November 1892 – 16 April 1916) was a British recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. De ...

Edgar Christopher Cookson Lieutenant-Commander Edgar Christopher Cookson VC DSO (13 December 1883 – 28 September 1915) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded ...

, and

Edward Elers Delaval Henderson Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Elers Delaval Henderson VC (2 October 1878 – 25 January 1917) was a British recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to Bri ...

. Captain Alfred Wallace Harvey of the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

, who was shot by a sentry from his own side, is also buried at Amara. Immediately to the south of the British cemetery is the

Amara (Left Bank) Indian War Cemetery The Amara (Left Bank) Indian War Cemetery is a military cemetery in Amara, now known as Amarah, southern Iraq, which contains the graves of more than 5,000 Indian soldiers who died during the First World War. It is the responsibility of the Comm ...

which contains the graves of more than 5,000 Indian soldiers killed during the Mesopotamian campaign.

Condition

In 2003, the BBC reported that the cemetery was in the care of Hassan Hatif Moson who said that he took the keeper's job in 1977 and had maintained the cemetery despite threats from

Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Baʿath Party ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي ' ) was a political party founded in Syria by Mishel ʿAflaq, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Bītār, and associates of Zaki al-ʾArsūzī. The party espoused B ...

officials. He said he had not been paid since 1991 but received support from Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, founder of the charity AMAR. The CWGC, however, said that Mosa has never been in their employ but that they would be appointing a caretaker for the cemetery. In 2014, commentating on the run-down condition of the cemetery, Iraqi sources urged that the cemetery be restored after neglect that they blamed on the local government and the fact that the cemetery was not recognised as part of Iraq's heritage. Commentators argued that it was an important site in the history of the local area and a monument to the resistance of local tribesmen to British occupation and so should be preserved.مقبرة-الانكليز-في-العمارة-حافظت-على
Almada Press. 9 September 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2016. In April 2016, Martin Fletcher of '' The Times'', reporting from Amarah, wrote that the cemetery had seriously deteriorated, with plaques falling from the memorial wall and the

Cross of Sacrifice The Cross of Sacrifice is a Commonwealth war memorial designed in 1918 by Sir Reginald Blomfield for the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission). It is present in Commonwealth war cemeteries containing 40 or ...

smashed. The perimeter wall and other cemetery infrastructure are also damaged. A man who described himself as the caretaker reported the cross being blown up one night in 2006. The CWGC commented that they had not been able to work in Iraq since 1991, but the cemetery would be restored when conditions allowed.British war graves left to crumble in the dust
Martin Fletcher, ''The Times'', 25 April 2016, pp. 14–15.

Location

Burials

Condition

See also