Today's remembering Soldier

[Ozzie]

Remembering Today: Pte Charles Victor ASHCROFT, 391143 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queens Bays), who died aged 20 on 16.01.21. Haidar Pasha Cemetery, Turkey

Can anyone help with the following.

20 yrs old in 1921, How long had he been in the army?

A cemetery in Turkey in 1921? How come?

What did he die of?

Kim

PS. I am Aussie so please forgive my ignorance if these answers are obvious to you guys over there.

And Ta in advance.

[Heid the Ba]

The cemetery is in Istanbul and I'd guess from the dates he fought in the Causcuses/South Russia in 1919/20 and died of wounds but no doubt someone knows.

[Wayne Saillard]

Hello Kim !

He could well have been a member of the British occupation force in Constantinople (Istanbul) after the end of hostilities.

Regards

Wayne

[Peter Bennett]

HAIDAR PASHA CEMETERY was first established for Crimean war burials and was used during the First World War by the Turks for the burial of Commonwealth prisoners of war. After the Armistice, when Istanbul was occupied, further burials were made mainly from No 82 General Hospital and graves were brought in from other civil cemeteries in the area. 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. The war graves plot contains 405 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 60 of them unidentified. Second World War burials number 39, 14 of them unidentified. Also within the cemetery, which the Commission maintains as a whole, are about 6,000 Crimean graves, mostly unmarked, and numerous non war military and civilian graves and memorials. Within the war graves plot stands the HAIDAR PASHA CREMATION MEMORIAL, which commemorates 122 soldiers of the Indian Army who died in 1919 and 1920 who were originally commemorated at Mashiak and Osmanieh Cemeteries. In 1961 when these cemeteries could no longer be maintained, the ashes of the Hindus, whose remains were cremated in accordance with their faith, were scattered near this memorial, while the remains of their comrades of the Muslim faith were brought here and re-interred. The war graves plot also contains the HAIDAR PASHA 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. An Addenda panel was later added to commemorate over 170 Commonwealth casualties who are buried in cemeteries in South Russia and Transcaucasia whose graves can no longer be maintained. No. of Identified Casualties: 451

[Esskay]

Kim - it's a long shot - but CWGC records his mother as living in Cork - "Son of Mary Carmody (formerly Ashcroft), of Powder Mills, Ballincollig, Cork, and the late Charles Ashcroft."

I'm sure someone on here has access to a lot of Cork info - local papers etc - just can't remember who at the minute - but hopefully someone will - or a search might find them. Might be a reference locally to help??

Cheers

Sue

[Ozzie]

Thanks Wayne and Sue ,

Peter thanks for the info, much appreciated.

Kim