Courtney's and Steel's Post Cemetery is a

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

located near ANZAC Cove on the

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

peninsula in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. It contains the graves of some of the former

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

troops who died during the Gallipoli Campaign. The campaign lasted eight months and was fought by

and

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

forces against the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

in an attempt to force

out of the war and to open a supply route to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

through the Dardanelles and the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

. British, French and other Allied troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April 1915 at Cape Helles in the south whilst Australian and New Zealand troops (the ANZAC corps) landed on the west coast. Courtney's Post was named after Lieutenant-Colonel

Richard Courtney Richard Courtney, drama teacher, theatre scholar and international expert in children's drama, was born in Newmarket, England on 4 June 1927 and was educated at Culford School and the University of Leeds. Between 1948 and 1952 Courtney studied a ...

of the 14th Australian Infantry Battalion who took command of it on 27 April. Steel's Post, named after Major Thomas Steel was just to the South West of it. Both positions were captured on the day of the landings and held until the Allies withdrew in December. The cemetery contains special memorials to 58 casualties believed to be buried amongst 160 unidentified graves.

Spelling

Steel's Post was officially, but incorrectly, named Steele's Post. The inscription on the cemetery follows this spelling and labels it Courtney's and Steele's Post but the CWGC lists the cemetery as ''Courtney's and Steel's Post''.

References

* *

Notes

External links

* {{coord, 40, 14, 08, N, 26, 17, 20, E, region:TR_source:kolossus-ruwiki, display=title Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Gallipoli