Visiting Gallipoli today

No 1 and No 2 Outposts were defensive positions taken up by New Zealand soldiers on the extreme left flank of the Anzac position in the days after the landing of 25 April 1915. These posts, and watching British warships at sea, ensured that Ottoman troops could not infiltrate the Anzac area along the coast or from the steep valleys inland. One of the best wells in the old Anzac position was also to be found near the outposts.

By 30 April, the New Zealanders had begun burying men killed in this area in the early stages of the landing at No 2 Outpost Cemetery, especially Australians of the 7th and 12th Battalions. New Zealand No 2 Outpost Cemetery was named from the burials undertaken by the Nelson Company and is simply one long grave made in September 1915. There are 183 soldiers buried or commemorated in this cemetery, 150 of whom are unidentified. Special Memorials commemorate thirty-one men known or believed to be buried among them – thirteen New Zealanders, ten British and eight Australians. All the Australians, who belonged to the 13th Battalion AIF, were killed in action or died of wounds well to the north of here on 8 August 1915 during the ‘August offensive’ of 6-10 August 1915.

View of the well near No 2 Post that was captured from the Turks to provide much needed water. The well was capable of supplying water for 20,000 troops and 4,000 mules each day.[AWM A02030]

View to the New Zealand No 2 Outpost Cemetery from the road leading from Anzac to Suvla, with No 2 Outpost Cemetery in the background. [DVA]

Entrance to New Zealand No 2 Cemetery. [DVA]

The area in front of the Cross of Sacrifice contains a mass grave constructed by the Nelson Company in September 1915. [DVA]

Commemorative stone in the cemetery gives details of the number of unidentified burials. [DVA]

Private Walter Cusack Beatty
13th Battalion AIF
Special Memorial 3

Private Walter Beatty was a single, twenty-year-old miner when he enlisted on 25 January 1915 at Liverpool, New South Wales, with the 3rd Reinforcements of the 13th Battalion. He was born in Braidwood, New South Wales, the son of Robert Cusack Beatty and Emily Beatty (neé Outram), who were living at West Maitland when Walter enlisted

The 13th Battalion landed at Anzac Cove during the night of 25-26 April 1915 and, on the morning of 26 April, went into action along the Anzac line being established on the ridge inland. Up until August, the unit was involved in establishing and defending this front line. On the night of 6-7 August, during the opening stages of the ‘August offensive’, the 13th was one of the battalions sent well to the north of the old Anzac position to attempt a capture of the area’s highest peak – Hill 971. Private Beatty was wounded on 7 August and died the following day, one of thirteen men of his unit, killed in heavy fighting on the approaches to Hill 971.

His personnel file reveals his burial place as being a battlefield cemetery near the left bank of the Chailak Dere (valley), 182 metres from the beach and 3.2 kilometres north of Anzac Cove. In June 1922, Beatty’s father was advised that his grave had not been ‘fully registered’ but it was believed that his remains had been interred in New Zealand No 2 Outpost Cemetery.

Private Walter Cusack Beatty, 13th Battalion, AIF, a native of Braidwood NSW, died of wounds at Hill 971 on 7 August 1915. [Sydney Morning Herald, 17 September 1915.]

Private Thomas John Jasper
13th Battalion AIF
Special Memorial 14

Before his enlistment twenty-seven year old Private Thomas John Jasper worked as a groom for Mr W Christian of Walli House, Maitland, New South Wales. He enlisted in October 1914 and embarked from Melbourne on the transport ship Berrima on 22 December 1914 with reinforcements for the 13th Battalion. He travelled via Egypt to Lemnos Island, where he scalded his foot a week before the landing at Gallipoli. He was taken to hospital in Alexandria. Fully recovered from his injury, Private Jasper returned to duty on 20 May 1915, and shortly afterwards landed at Anzac.

His mother, Mary Jasper of Horseshoe Bend, West Maitland, seems not to have been in good health. Her son’s personnel file contains a letter from a family member, requesting that any ‘sudden’ bad news of him be sent to the Bishop’s House at West Maitland, where it would be conveyed to his mother. After his mother, Mary Jasper, learnt of her son’s death, she wrote a number of poignant letters seeking to have any small memento of her son, such as his identity disc, returned to her. Official correspondence shows, however, that that no such item was ever recovered.

Private Jasper was fatally wounded on 7-8 August 1915 and buried on 8 August 1915 in the same battlefield cemetery as Private Walter Beatty. Twelve other men of his unit were killed during the action. It was not until June 1922 that his mother was advised that his remains were now believed to be in New Zealand No 2 Outpost Cemetery where he is commemorated by a Special Memorial.