Haidar Pasha Cemetery

The Haidar Pasha cemetery is located in the Haidar Pasha area, a district on the Asiatic side of Istanbul, between Scutari (Üsküdar) and Kadiköy. This cemetery located on the heights near the Sea of Marmara, was established for the English soldiers who died mostly due to a cholera epidemic at the military hospital established by Florence Nightingale. Around 6,000 soldiers died during the war in the Selimiye Barracks (Scutari Barracks, Barracks hospital).

Painted by William Simpson, this picture shows the early period of the cemetery and all manner of graves from simple crosses to elaborate stone vaults. You can also see a funeral approaching from the right whilst the gravediggers are obviously muslims praying toward mecca. The Barracks hospital can clearly be seen in the background.

The cemetery holds also graves of Commonwealth soldiers from the two World Wars, and civilians of British nationality who died in Istanbul.

The land forming this cemetery consisted of two separate parcels and was donated by the Ottoman Government to the British Government in 1855. A second land was granted made in 1867 to connect the two separate lands. 1867 the cemetery was made available for British civilian burials, and there is a separate section for such graves.

**The plan of the Haidar Pasha cemetery**

**On the columns of the door there are two inscriptions, one in English and the other in Turkish**

The first monument you can see near the entrance gate is the German-Jäger memorial. It’s a symbolic broken column in memory for members of the British German Legion who fell in the Crimea.

**The double-headed eagle or double-eagle served as the coat of arms of the German Confederation between 1848 and 1866.**

**The coat of arms of the German Confederation between 1848 and 1866**

Jäger is a German military term that originally referred to light infantry, but has come to have wider usage.

While it may be literally translated as "hunter", in German-speaking states during the early modern era, the term Jäger was used to describe skirmishers, sharpshooters and runners.

Jäger, in its original sense of light infantry, is usually translated into English as: rifleman.

The British German Legion (or Anglo-German Legion) was a group of German soldiers recruited to fight for Britain in the Crimean War.

The leader of the legion was Major General Richard von Stutterheim.

It was disbanded November 1856, having seen little or no military action due to the war having ended. Facing difficulties in repatriation by having served a foreign country, most of members of the legion were resettled in the Eastern Cape Colony, in South Africa.

A little further there is Sir Edward Barton stone. Sir Edward Barton (1562 – 18 January1597) was Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, appointed by Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Barton went to Istanbul in 1578 as secretary to William Harborne, the founder of the English embassy in the city, . In 1588 when Harborne returned to England he was appointed by Queen Elizabeth I, to succeed him,. By this time he was fluent in Turkish and well respected in the Sublime Porte.

This was a time of war between England and Spain, and Barton was charged with trying to obtain the support of the Ottomans in this struggle, while of course working to defend English commercial interests by for example trying to persuade
the Porte to prevent Florence from trading in cloth in Ottoman territory.

In 1596 Barton accompanied Sultan Mehmet III in his campaign against Hungary and was present at the siege of Eger.
He spent his last days in Heybeliada (Chalki), one of the Prince’s islands, in order to escape the plague raging through the city in 1596. He was buried there, in the cemetery of the Christian church.

After a while his tombstone was displaced and put over the door of the monastery, until Lord Strangford (English ambassador in Turkey between 1820 and 1824) ordered it to be taken down and put it back in its place in the cemetery. His grave was later removed to the British Haidar Pasha Cemetery.

**In a 19th century engraving we see the tombstone of Edward Barton, placed at the top of the door of the Panaia monastery**

EDUARDO BARTON
ILLUSTRISSIMO SERENISSIMO
ANGLORUM REGINAE ORATORI
VIRO PRAESTANTISSIMO
QUI POST REDITUM
A BELLO UNGARICO
QUO CUM INVICTO TURCORUM IMPARATORE
PROFECTUS FUERAT DIEM OBIIT
AETATIS ANNO XXXV SALUTIS VERUM
ANNO MDXCVII XVIII CALENDIS IANNUAR

   


After walking a few steps you can see the most sumptuous monument of the cemetery: The Crimean war memorial or known at the time as the Scutari Monument.

This memorial was erected in 1857 by Queen Victoria (1819 –1901) within the cemetery to commemorate the British soldiers of the Crimean War. French sculptor Baron Carlo Marochetti (1805 -1867) designed it in the fashionable Egyptian style of the time, and his work was unveiled with a great ceremony at the Peace Fête of May 1856, held at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, to mark the end of the Crimean War. The inauguration took place in the presence of the Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, with military bands, the Crystal Palace band and 12,000 visitors in attendance. However, the war memorial came in for a good deal of criticism, partly because of its cost: £17,500.

A watercolour of John Tenniel shows the inauguration on 9 May 1856 of a full-sized model
of the Scutari Monument and the equestrian statue of Richard I.
Both are the works of Baron Marochetti

The memorial is composed of a square plinth surmounted by an obelisk made of the famous Aberdeen granite. The plinth has 2.5m width and 7m height. At each corner of the upper part of the base, there is an angel statue symbolizing victory, each wearing a palm frond and a crown, and serving as caryatids to support a canopy. The total height of the monument is 28 meters.

I think these four angels represent the four countries (Ottoman Empire, United Kingdom, France and the Kingdom of Sardinia) that made the alliance and won the victory against Russia.

One of the four angels,
as shown in the Illustrated London News
of 17 May 1856, p. 525.

Between the statues of the angels, on the facades of the base there are 4 plaques written in 4 different languages: English, French, Italian and old Turkish.

“TO THE MEMORY OF THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE BRITISH ARMY AND NAVY WHO IN THE WAR AGAINST RUSSIA IN 1854, 1855 AND 1856, DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY THIS MONUMENT WAS RAISED BY QUEEN VICTORIA AND HER PEOPLE 1857”

A bronze plaque, attached by the British community in Turkey on the plinth of the Crimean Memorial and unveiled on Empire Day, 1954 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s nursing service in this region.

TO FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE WHOSE WORK NEAR
THIS CEMETERY A CENTURY AGO RELIEVED
MUCH HUMAN SUFFERING AND LAID THE
FOUNDATION FOR THE NURSING PROFESSİON

1854 1954

THIS TABLET CAST IN THE CORONATION YEAR OF
HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II. HAS BEEN RAISED BY THE
BRITISH COMMUNITY IN TURKEY IN HER MEMORY.

In the middle of the facades of the canopy there is a coat of arms with a sentence in French around it.

Honi soit qui mal y pense is a French maxim used as the motto of the British chivalric Order of the Garter.

These words were first uttered by England's King Edward III in the 14th century. At that time, he reigned over a part of France. The language spoken at the English court among the aristocracy and clergy and in courts of law was Norman French.

Around 1348, King Edward III founded the Chivalric Order of the Garter, which today is the highest order of chivalry and the third most prestigious honor awarded in Britain. It is not known with certainty why this name was chosen for the order.

According to historian Elias Ashmole, the Garter is founded on the idea that as King Edward III prepared for the Battle of Crécy during the Hundred Years' War, he gave "forth his own garter as the signal." The well-equipped British army proceeded to vanquish an army of thousands of knights under French King Philip VI in this decisive battle in Normandy.

According to Polydore Virgile, the young Jeanne de Kent, Countess of Salisbury - the king's favorite at the time - accidentally dropped her garter when she was dancing with the King during a ball in Calais. King Edward III of England responded to the crowd who smiled by tying the garter to his own knee and by saying in Middle French “Messires "Honi soit qui mal y pense. Tel qui s'en rit aujourd'hui, s'honorera de la porter, car ce ruban sera mis en tel honneur que les railleurs le chercheront avec empressement" ("Shame on him who thinks evil of it. Those who laugh at this today will be proud to wear it tomorrow because this band will be worn with such honor that those mocking now will be looking for it with much eagerness").

He promised his favorite to make this blue ribbon a badge so prestigious and desired that the most proud or ambitious courtiers would consider themselves more than happy to wear it. He thus created the order of the Garter (Most Noble Order of the Garter) which is the highest of the British orders of chivalry, April 23, 1348, in the midst of the Hundred Years War.

Nowadays, this expression could be used to say "Shame on the one who sees something bad in it."

The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, or simply the royal coat of arms, are the official coat of arms of the British monarch, at the time it was Queen Victoria and currently Queen Elizabeth II.

As part of the royal arms, the motto is displayed in many public buildings in Britain and colonial era public buildings in various parts of the Commonwealth (such as all Courts of England and Wales). The royal arms appear on many British government official documents (e.g. the front of current British passports)and are used by other entities so distinguished by the British monarch.

A little further at the right we see Nicolas O’Conor memorial chapel.

Above the door there is an inscription in Latin
NICOLAUS RODERICUS O'CONOR, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE
OTTOMAN EMPIRE, DIED ON MARCH 19, 1908

**In the pediment of the chapel there is a symbol known as christogram.**

A christogram is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a religious symbol within the Christian Church.

Chi-Rho is one of the first forms of christogram, formed by superimposing the first two letters (capital letters) - chi and rho (ΧΡ) - of the Greek word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (Christos) in such a way that the vertical line of rho cuts the center of chi.

Alpha (Α or α) and omega (Ω or ω) are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and a title of Christ and God in the book of Revelation. This pair of letters is used as a Christian symbol.

**Christogram, with the letters "alpha" and "omega"**

The term Alpha and Omega comes from the phrase "I am Alpha and Omega", an appellation of Jesus.

This phrase is interpreted by many Christians to mean that Jesus has existed for all eternity or that God is eternal. Most Christian denominations also teach that the title applies to both Jesus and his Father.

Sir Nicholas Roderick O'Conor GCB GCMG PC (1843 – 19 March 1908) was an Anglo-Irish diplomat. When he died, he was the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

O'Conor entered the diplomatic service in 1866. In his early years, he was attached to the Embassy in Berlin, achieving the rank of Third Secretary in 1870. He served as Secretary at the Hague, Madrid. Rio de Janeiro, and Paris. He was Secretary and Chargé d'Affaires at Peking and Washington, Political Agent and Consul-General in Bulgaria.

O'Conor's first ministerial appointment was at the British Legation at Peking.

1892: In Seoul, O'Conor was the British Minister to the Empire of Korea.
1895: In St. Petersburg, he was Ambassador of His Britannic Majesty in the Imperial court of the Russian Czar.
1896, O'Conor was made a Privy Counsellor. (The Privvy Council of the United Kingdom is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom).
1898: In Istanbul, he was Ambassador to the Court of the Sublime Porte of the Ottoman Empire.

O'Conor died in Istanbul following hemorrhage of the stomach. He was the second British Ambassador to die in post in Turkey since Sir Edward Barton, Ambassador of Queen Elizabeth I to Sultan Mehmet III, died in 1597 at Heybeliada (Chalki, one of the Prince’s islands).

GCB : Knight Grand Cross (a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725).
GCMG : The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (GCMG) (a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later King George IV, while he was acting as regent for his father, King George III).
PC : Privy Council

Nicholas Roderick O'Conor
Ambassador in St. Petersburg, 1895 - 1898

Another monument is “Therapia burials and Memorial” which was erected in 1855 initially in the Therapia Crimean Cemetery (Therapia is in the European part of Bosphorus), and later transferred here together with the graves of 18 personnel of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines who died in the sultan’s mansion in Therapia, which had been converted into a military hospital. Today, at this mansion’s place there is the summer residence of the German Embassy.

TO THE MEMORY OF
THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE ROYAL NAVY MARINES AND BURIED
AT THERAPIA
ERECTED BY THEIR COUNTRYWOMEN
A.D. 1855

Summer residence of the German embassy in Therapia was built in the place of the Sultan's mansion.
Sultan's mansion was used as British Naval Hospital during the Crimean war.

Buried in special plots are some 450 Commonwealth war dead of both World Wars. The war graves plot contains 407 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 60 of them unidentified. Most were prisoners of war died in Turkey.

**Haidar Pasha Memorial Commemorating soldiers who died in World War I**

**Pedestal markers of First World War military graves in the cemetery**

**Linear layout of soldiers’ graves who died in WW1**

During the Second World War, Turkey retained her neutrality and those Commonwealth servicemen buried there were mainly men taken prisoner during operations in the Aegean, who died while attempting to escape from camps where they awaited transport to Germany and Italy, and whose bodies were washed up on the Turkish coast. Second World War burials number is 39, 14 of them unidentified.

Within the war graves plot stands the Haidar Pasha Cremation Memorial, commemorating 122 soldiers of the Indian Army who died in 1919 and 1920 and who were originally commemorated at Maslak and Osmanie cemeteries. In 1961 when these cemeteries could no longer be maintained, the ashes of the Hindus, were scattered near this memorial, while the remains of their comrades of the Muslim faith were brought here and reinterred.

**Haidar Pasha Cremation Memorial (Central part)**

**Haidar Pasha Cremation Memorial (Right part)**

**Haidar Pasha Cremation Memorial (Left part)**

An Addenda panel was later added perpendicularly at each side of the HAIDAR PASHA MEMORIAL to commemorate the Dunsterforce officers and soldiers who are buried in cemeteries in South Russia and Transcaucasian Republics during the Russian civil war, whose graves can no longer be maintained.

Established in December 1917, Dunsterforce was an Allied military force named after its commander, General Lionel Dunsterville. The force had fewer than 350 Australian, New Zealand, British and Canadian officers , who were drawn from the Western and Mesopotamian fronts. The force was intended to organise local units in northern Iran (Persia) and southern Caucasus, to replace the Tsarist armies that had fought the Ottoman armies in the east of the Turkey.

TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MEMORY OF THESE OFFICERS AND MEN OF DUNSTERFORCE
THE ARMY OF THE BLACK SEA AND THE MILITARY MISSION WITH THE VOLUNTEER ARMY
WHO ARE BURIED IN SOUTH RUSSIA AND THE TRANSCAUCASIAN REPUBLICS
THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT

The war graves plot also contains a MEMORIAL, which was erected to commemorate more than 30 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War who died fighting in South Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, and in post Armistice operations in Russia and Transcaucasia, whose graves are not known.

Here are recorded by the nations of the British Empire, the names of thirty officers and men of their armed forces
who died in the borderlands of Russia and Turkey in the latter days of the Great War and have no known grave

The war graves plot also contains the Gordon Highlander MEMORIAL, which was erected to commemorate the Gordon Highlanders who lost their lives in Turkey.

The Gordon Highlanders was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that existed for 113 years, from 1881 until 1994. The regiment takes its name from the Clan Gordon, located mainly in the north-east of Scotland, especially around Aberdeen.

In a book describing this period of war, it is said that in the military hospitals (the English General Hospital - today Sultan Abdulhamid Khan Hospital and in the Selimiye barracks hospital) there were everyday 50-60 deaths. The corpses of these soldiers and officers were crowded into the open graves (the mass grave) at the Haidar Pasha cemetery at four o'clock in the afternoon. In the same book, it is also stated that the bodies of the dead officers are buried one by one and wooden plates are placed on their graves.

The mass grave where 6000 soldiers are buried is at the end of the cemetery.

There are three columns marking the border of the mass grave.
This is the first one

The other two columns.
Beyond the columns is the mass grave.

**The mass grave seen from the opposite side**

The maintenance of this cemetery is supervised from The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) of Turkey.

Haidar Pasa cemetery Crimean War Period Graves (in alphabetical order)

01) Abernethey Henry
02) Anderson David
03) Bailes John
04) Barnes Sophia
05) Beck Charles Henry
06) Binns Kirby Eustace
07) Bruce John
08) Burton Archer
09) Byrne Felim Patrick
10) Campbell Pitcairn William
11) Campbell William Richard Newport
12) Champion J.G
13) Cochran James Inclis
14) Colvill William Robert
15) Complin Edward John
16) Cooper J
17) Craweurd Payne R H
18) Derriman Edward Harris
19) Dewar Robert Malcolmb
20) Finnerty F.S. Mary
21) Glazbrook C.S
22) Hamilton Alex
23) Hamilton Baillie Henry
24) Harriott Hugh Charles
25) Harrison Nathaniel Evanson
26) Hichens John
27) Hodgkins Thomas
28) Horn Matthew Thomas
29) Hughes Henry George
30) Johnson Francis
31) Lichfield P Frederick
32) Lulwell John Hening M
33) Lyons Moubray Edmund
34) Macartney A Frederick
35) Macesy V
36) Marks Mary
37) Mayne
38) Milligan George
39) Moore Charlotte
40) Morgan Thomas Kyd
41) Neville Grey
42) Nolloth Charles
43) Parker Hyde
44) Pattison John
45) Platt Arthur Ferdinand
46) Platt Charles
47) Proctor George Henry
48) Reade G Hume
49) Seager Edward
50) Sharp JB
51) Simons R
52) Singer Henry Crofton
53) Smith H. E.
54) Smyth Harry
55) Somerville William
56) Struthers Alexander
57) Thisfleth Arthur
58) Towsend Henry
59) Waldegrave Frederick William
60) Walford Sophia
61) Wall Terrence H
62) Ward Lucas
63) Whilfeld John Henry
64) Wigh Henry Arthur
65) Wishart James A
66) Wolrice R George


01) Abernethey Henry