AMARA WAR CEMETERY
Amara was occupied by the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force on 3 June
1915 and it immediately became a hospital centre. The accommodation
for medical units on both banks of the Tigris was greatly increased
during 1916 and in April 1917, seven general hospitals and some smaller
units were stationed there. Amara War Cemetery contains 4,621 burials
of the First World War, more than 3,000 of which were brought into the
cemetery after the Armistice. 925 of the graves are unidentified. In
1933, all of the headstones were removed from this cemetery when it
was discovered that salts in the soil were causing them to deteriorate.
Instead a screen wall was erected with the names of those buried in
the cemetery engraved upon it. Plot XXV is a Collective Grave, the individual
burial places within this are not known. |