Walker's Ridge Cemetery

Walker’s Ridge is the last cemetery on the unmade road leading down from the Nek Cemetery towards the edge of the plateau. From the cemetery itself the view northwards sweeps away superbly towards Suvla Bay. These heights were quickly reached from North Beach by Australians in the first hour or so after the landing at 4.30 a.m. on 25 April 1915. The ridge was called after Brigadier-General Harold Walker who commanded the New Zealand infantry at the landing and established his headquarters hereabouts.

Walker’s Ridge Cemetery was begun during the Gallipoli campaign and is the final resting place of thirty Australians of whom only twelve have been positively identified. The remaining eighteen, known to be buried here, are commemorated by Special Memorials.

Among the burials are eight members of the 2nd Battalion, seven of whom died between 27 April and 2 May 1915, the period of the ‘Battle of the Landing’. The deaths of the seven men of the 20th Battalion at Walker’s Ridge occurred between 2 September and 25 November. Here also are men of the 9th and 10th Battalions AIF, units which fought in this area at the landing, and men of the 8th and 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment who were killed during the famous charge at The Nek on 7 August 1915.

View from Walker’s Ridge down Mule Gully towards the sea, 27 August 1915. Tethered in the bottom the gully are mules used to transport supplies and wounded men. [AWM P02321.041]

The view in 1915 looking north-west from Walker’s Ridge towards the Suvla Plain. [AWM G01145]

View from Walker’s Ridge to Ari Burnu. [DVA]

View from Walker’s Ridge to Ari Burnu and the Commemorative site at North Beach. [DVA]

Entrance to the cemetery at Walker’s Ridge. [DVA]

Walker’s Ridge Cemetery. [DVA]

Commemorative stone for unnamed soldiers and marines believed to have been buried in the cemetery at Walker’s Ridge. [DVA]

Major Thomas Harold REDFORD
8th Australian Light Horse AIF
Plot II, Row C, Grave 9

Captain Thomas Redford was an experienced soldier when he enlisted in the AIF in September 1914, having served seven years in the Victorian Mounted Regiment. A native of Warrnambool, Victoria, he married Ruth Cameron at Mosman, NSW in November 1914 and was promoted to the rank of major in January 1915. He sailed from Melbourne for Egypt on the Star of Victoria on 25 February 1915. In mid May, his unit was sent without their horses to Gallipoli to serve as infantry reinforcements.

On 7 August 1915, the 8th Light Horse formed the first two waves for the ill-fated charge at The Nek. Of the three hundred men who staged the charge, twelve officers and 142 men were killed with a further four officers and seventy-seven men wounded. A first hand account of the events of the charge, and the death of Major Redford, is contained in an entry in Major Redford’s diary. It is believed to have been written after the charge by Major William McGrath of the 8th Light Horse:

At 0400 on the morning of the 7th a short bombardment by howitzers and warships, which did no damage, was succeeded by the word being passed around for the attack. B Squadron (100 bayonets) plus 50 bayonets from A [Squadron] took from the extreme left to the top of the ridge.

Everyman sprang out of the trench eagerly and crawled carefully for a few yards. Suddenly as they stood up to run forward, and got silhouetted on the skyline, a terrific fire from machine guns by the enemy (at range of 10 yards), swept everything down. Men were shot down in wonderful fashion and never before have I heard such a terrific volume of fire. Those not hit, promptly fell down, but the enemy played all along the ground with terrible effect and slaughter supplemented with dozens and dozens of hand grenades. No man unless in hollow ground escaped.

Our gallant Major whilst lying facing the enemy's trench (10 yards away) in the front of his men received a bullet through his brain as he raised his head slightly to observe. He died with a soft sigh and laid his head on his hands as if tired. A braver and more honourable man never donned uniform. The love not only by his Squadron (I might well say adored), but the all the regiment, he created respect everywhere.
[AWM PR85/064]

The writer recorded the horrific sight the day after the charge:

I went again into the trenches to try and identify bodies through a periscope but the sight I saw will never be forgotten. In this special piece of ground where lie all these good men (a space 100 yards by 50). I have now seen 300 odd Turkish bodies and 150 of our own. Can you imagine greater carnage than this?
[AWM PR85/064]

Initially buried by the Rev Makeham at Shrapnel Terrace, Russell’s Top, with the grave marked by a cross made from ammunition boxes, Major Redford’s remains were removed to Walker’s Ridge Cemetery in 1921. The epitaph on his headstone is taken from Malachi Chapter III, Verse 17:

And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

The epitaph simply reads -

‘Mine’ Malachi III 17

Major Thomas Redford in the uniform of a Captain of the 11th Light Horse Regiment (Victorian Mounted Rifles) which was disbanded in 1912. [AWM P04051.001]

Officers of the 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment – ( standing L to R) - Major Thomas Redford, Lieutenants Edward Henty, and Elliot Wilson; (seated L to R) Lieutenants Keith Borthwick and Robert Baker. All with the exception of Lieutenant Baker were killed in action at The Nek on 7 August 1915. Lieutenant Baker was ill in hospital in Mudros at the time. [AWM P00265.001]

Major Thomas Redford, and members of the 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment, preparing to leave Rest Camp B, Gallipoli, 1915. [AWM H03164]

Grave of Major Thomas Redford, 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment, AIF, Walker’s Ridge Cemetery. [DVA]

Second Lieutenant Cornwallis Charles Wyndham Maude
9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, AIF
Plot II, Row B, Grave 2

At the time of his enlistment as a private in the AIF under the name of Wallace Maude, at Morphetville, South Australia, Lieutenant Cornwallis Maude, the son of General Cornwallis Oswald Maude, was himself a veteran. Born into a military family at Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, he had served with the Worcester Regiment, the Cape Mounted Rifles, and the Frontier Light Horse of the Boer War in South Africa. After the war he came to Australia and was employed as an electric light wireman.

Shortly after his enlistment in late October 1914 he requested a transfer to C Squadron, 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, and sailed on the transport ship Karroo on 11 February 1915 for Egypt. In May he arrived at Gallipoli where he was first promoted sergeant, and later Temporary Second Lieutenant. Maude, aged thirty-nine, was killed in action on 13 August by a bullet wound to the head. He was initially buried by Chaplain Meakin at Shrapnel Terrace.

News of his death was communicated to his elder brother, Maurice, in Goulburn, New South Wales, by Dr Radford, the Bishop of Goulburn. Maurice chose the epitaph the headstone when his brother’s remains were later exhumed and re-interred at Walkers Ridge.

Not In Vain

Lieutenant Maude Cornwallis Charles Wyndham Maude, 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, AIF. [Sydney Mail, 17 September 1915]

Grave of Lieutenant Cornwallis Charles Wyndham Maude, 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, AIF, Walker’s Ridge Cemetery. [DVA]

Trooper Harold Rush
10th Australian Light Horse, AIF
Plot II, Row C, Grave 4

One of most memorable and oft quoted epitaphs of a fallen soldier on the Gallipoli Peninsula is that of Englishman Harold Rush who enlisted in the AIF on 6 October 1914. On his headstone are the words:

His last words ‘Goodbye Cobber, God Bless you.'

These were his final words to his friend beside him in the trench before the 10th Light Horse’s fatal charge at The Nek on 7 August 1915. Trooper Rush was killed in action within moments of the farewell.

Trooper Rush was born at Whitnesham, near Ipswich, Suffolk, England, and arrived in Australia four years before he enlisted in December 1914 at Guildford in Western Australia. The twenty-three year old arrived on Gallipoli with his unit, the 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment, on 16 May 1915. Amongst the death notices that appeared in the Western Mail (Perth) after his death on 24 September 1915, was one describing Trooper Rush as the dearly loved friend of Warren Marwick and family, of York.

Rush’s younger brother, Raymond Ernest, enlisted in the 18th Battalion at Liverpool, New South Wales, and also served on Gallipoli, and later on the Western Front in France and Belgium. He was twice wounded and gassed before being discharged as medically unfit in 1918.

Trooper Rush’s remains were exhumed from Shrapnel Terrace, Russell’s Top, and re-interred at Walker’s Ridge in 1922.

Trooper Harold Rush, 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment. [Western Mail, 17 September 1915]

Grave of Trooper Harold Rush, 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment AIF, killed in action, 7 August 1915. [DVA]

To read more about the events that took place here, see the section of the Anzac Walk on this site.
Walker's Ridge

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