Hill 60 Cemetery

Hill 60 Cemetery lies well to the north of the old Anzac position. Australians first came into this area during the ‘August Offensive’, 6-10 August 1915, when an attempt was made to break out of Anzac by capturing the heights of the range which can be seen to the south-east of the cemetery – Hill 971 and Chunuk Bair.

Originally in Turkish hands, Hill 60 was attacked successively by the Canterbury and Otago Mounted Rifles and the 18th Battalion AIF on 21-22 August 1915 and was partly captured. The cemetery was commenced, amongst the trenches of Hill 60, after these actions. It was enlarged after the war by bringing in bodies from other smaller battlefield burial sites. There are now 788 burials in this cemetery, 712 of them unidentified. Fourteen Australians have known graves here with a further sixteen commemorated by Special Memorials. Twenty of the Australians either buried or commemorated here were serving with the 18th Battalion or the 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, both units heavily involved in the fighting in the area in late August-early September 1915.

Also in Hill 60 Cemetery is the New Zealand Memorial, one of four memorials on the Gallipoli Peninsula commemorating New Zealanders who have no known graves.

‘We took the hill’, a recruiting poster used to encourage Australians to Enlist in 1915. [AWM ARTV00140]

‘We took the hill’, a recruiting poster used to encourage Australians to enlist in 1915. [AWM ARTV00140]

Members of the Australian Historical Mission and a Turkish officer at Hill 60, February 1919. [AWM G01904]

Members of the Australian Historical Mission and a Turkish officer at Hill 60, February 1919. The Historical Mission, led by official historian Charles Bean, had returned to Gallipoli to survey and report on the battlefield. Bean’s account of the mission, Gallipoli Mission, was published in 1948. [AWM G01904]

Remains of Australian soldiers, Hill 60, 1919. [AWM G02079]

Remains of Australian soldiers, Hill 60, 1919. [AWM G02079]

Aerial view of Hill 60 Cemetery in 1923. [AWM H18638]

The New Zealand memorial stands in Hill 60 Cemetery. [DVA]

Entrance to Hill 60 Cemetery. [DVA]

Lieutenant Colonel Carew Reynell
9th Australian Light Horse AIF
Special Memorial 4

The 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment came to Gallipoli in May 1915 and within three months had been reduced to 181 men. Many had been lost to enemy fire and even more to sickness and general debility. Their commanding officer, Major Carew Reynell, commented -

we are all ill to breaking point

Before the ‘August Offensive’ he wrote:

I feel I ought to be writing home sort of good bye letters in case of a wash out … I think I have arranged for every contingency as far as this Regiment is concerned and hope we shall give a good account of ourselves, and in case of accidents – goodbye and may it be some consolation to you to realise that I have been some use here, and Dickaboo [his son Richard] must grow up quick and be a comfort to his mother and grandfather.
[Major Carew Reynell, diary, PR86/388, AWM]

On the night of 27 August 1915, twenty-eight year old Lieutenant Colonel Reynell was killed leading a charge at Hill 60. His body, and that of fellow officer Captain Alfred Jaffray, were recovered the following night:

We buried Reynell and Jaffrey under the trees at the far side of our little gully, and had just concluded the service when the enemy, who evidently had seen us from their observation post on Hill 971, opened a heavy shell fire on our position. The parade was quickly dismissed and the men took cover under the hillside.
[Quoted in Major T H Darley, With the Ninth Light Horse in the Great War, Adelaide, 1924, p20]

Lieutenant General William Birdwood, commander of the Anzac Corps, wrote to Major Reynell’s father in law, Douglas Byard, two days after the major’s death:

He turned out, as you told me he would, a first class soldier… Reynell commanded his regiment with the greatest dash, and at once charged straight for the Turkish trenches into which he led his men. As he was not quite satisfied with the trench they had taken he very rightly decided to gain possession of some further part of the enemy’s position. He shouted to his men to follow him, which they at once did, and again charged across the parapets at a further point. You will realise how deeply I grieve as in fact we all do.
[Letter from Birdwood, PR86/388, AWM]

Lieutenant Colonel Reynell’s son, Flight Lieutenant Richard (‘Dickaboo’) Reynell, met his death in 1940 at the age of 28 years as a test pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He is buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey, England.

Lieutenant Colonel Carew Reynell, 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, killed in action, 28 August 1915. [AWM H19213]

Lieutenant Colonel Carew Reynell, 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, killed in action, 28 August 1915. [AWM H19213]

Graves of Lieutenant Cameron, Lieutenant Colonel Carew Reynell and Captain Alfred Jaffrey in 1915. [AWM H02779]

Graves of Lieutenant Cameron, Lieutenant Colonel Carew Reynell and Captain Alfred Jaffrey in 1915. [AWM H02779]

Special memorial of Colonel Carew Reynell, 9th Australian Light Horse, Hill 60 Cemetery.

Sergeant Hugh Loudon Gooch
9th Light Horse Regiment
Special Memorial 25

Boer war veteran Sergeant Hugh Gooch, of Burra, South Australia, was a grazier before his enlistment in the 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment. Sergeant Gooch was killed in action at Hill 60 on 28 August 1915. Second Lieutenant Guy Butler of the 9th Light Horse wrote:

Our squadron of only 53 men, were sent into a communication trench, unknown to them, after dark, they soon discovered there were only a few yards from the Turks and immediately both sides commenced bomb throwing. It was necessary, of course, to find out exactly where our men were and the position of the enemy, and dear old Hugh, took it upon himself to do so. He got out of the trench and made one tour over the ground, coming back with valuable information. It was during the second attempt, he was killed ….his pluck and unceasing energy will always be remembered by those who got to know and love him, in the 9th Light Horse. Major Parsons told me of Hugh’s good work during the night, and it is nice to know that he gave his life for his King and Country, whilst doing most important and heroic work.
[H L Gooch, 2DRL/0084, AWM]

A letter written by a fellow lighthorseman from Racecourse Camp, Heliopolis, Egypt, in January 1916 gave further details of Sergeant Gooch’s last hours:

He was shot a few yards from where he left the trench and lay for some hours before he could be put back. His body was brought in and buried I believe behind the trenches at Hill 60.
[H L Gooch, 2DRL/0084, AWM]

The epitaph on Gooch’s headstone is from the Roman poet Horace, from his Odes, Book 3, second Ode, line 13:

Dulce Et Decorum Est
Pro Patria Mori

[It is sweet and proper to die for one's country]

Special memorial of Sergeant Hugh Gooch, 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, Hill 60 Cemetery. [DVA]

Official CWGC grave listings for CWGC link icon Hill 60 Cemetery (External link)

CWGC logo Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website and "Debt of Honour" Register