The conditions at No. 3 Pier (Embarkation Pier) were far from ideal:

Here must be traced the cause of this deplorable damming back of the stream of casualties, whereby the wounded were retained near the beach under conditions which entailed terrible suffering and loss of life within a few hundred yards of the roadstead, where the hospital ships lay undisturbed. As at the Landing, failure to carry the heights involved serious difficulty for the services responsible for supplies and for evacuation. Beyond the foot-hills, the open country and beach were by day continuously subjected to shell-fire and sniping, and in particular to a continuous rain of “overs”.

No. 3 trestle pier was apparently intended only for evacuation of wounded, and it was at first so used, a Red Cross flag being flown. But early on the 7th it was used, under protest from the medical side, by beach parties under combatant officers for landing stores: thereafter the flag was, rightly enough, not respected by the enemy. Although at first, through his preoccupation, this fire was only intermittent, and was ignored by those conducting the evacuation, this advantage was offset by the fact that the pier was inaccessible to pinnaces and cutters, except at full tide, and that no lighters or barges were available.42

Amongst those buried here is Private Donald Ferris (Sp. Mem.B.16), Maori Contingent. An accomplished machine gunner, he was killed alongside Private Colin Warden at The Apex on 8 August.

Trooper William Albert Baker (I.A.12), 9/LHR, who was slightly wounded in support of the attack at The Nek, but killed later in November 1915, a casualty of a sniper. Baker, from Kangarilla, South Australia, was a station hand in civilian life, before enlisting in November 1914. Whilst on observation duty in the trenches on the Rhododendron Spur he was shot through the head. A recent heavy snowfall that covered the battlefield had the effect of pronouncing his head, silhouetted against the white background, a fatal mistake and a lesson others learned quickly. He was first buried in No. 2 Outpost, and then after the war his body was re-interred in this cemetery. His brother chose the words of the epitaph: “Brother Bill A Sniping Fell, We Miss Him Still, We Ever Will.”

Reverend Andrew Gillison (Sp.Mem.B.62), was the first AIF Chaplain to fall in the Great War, mortally wounded at Hill 60, dying some three hours later on 22 August. He was a Scotsman and a Presbyterian minister, who emigrated to Australia. Gillison was appointed as an army chaplain in 1906, and in October 1914 was appointed a captain and Presbyterian chaplain to 4 (Australian) Brigade. He was mortally wounded alongside Corporal Robert Pittendrigh, a Methodist minister from Lithgow, NSW. Pittendrigh died of his wounds on a hospital ship a week later and was buried at sea, and is commemorated on Panel 36 of the Lone Pine Memorial. The Pittendrigh name is shared with two of his cousins who were also killed on Gallipoli: Edmund (Panel 62), 18/AIF, who was killed at Hill 60 on 22 August, and Norman (Panel 13), 1/AIF, who was killed on 6 August at Lone Pine. His brother Keith survived the war to return to Australia.

Another Hill 60 casualty is Lieutenant Colonel Charles Ernest Thomas (I.A.17), New Zealand Medical Corps, who was commanding the Mounted Field Ambulance. He was killed on 28 August when leading stretcher bearers to the vicinity of Hill 60. He had entered a sap that led to the fire trenches when a shell burst over the party, wounding all four stretcher bearers whilst the concussion killed Thomas. Thomas was born in India, educated at Cheltenham College and became a surgeon in England. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1890, where he was a surgeon at Timaru Hospital. Serving in the Boer War, he returned to New Zealand and opened his own practice before joining the NZEF in August 1914.

Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Beeston, officer commanding 4th Field Ambulance, described the area:

We still had our swim off the beach from this position. It will be a wonderful place for tourists after the war is over. For Australians all along the flat land by the beach there are sufficient bullets to start a lead factory. Then searching among the gullies will give good results. We came across the Turkish Quartermaster’s store, any quantity of coats and boots and bully beef. The latter was much more palatable than ours.43

Optional Walk - Bauchop’s Hill

If travelling by car allow for a twenty minutes return journey along a rough track, or ninety minutes if walking.

Leaving Embarkation Cemetery, continue along the beach road for a further hundred metres. On the right, landward, side of the road, is a rough track that is drivable as well as walkable. This will take you initially into Chailak Dere before the road climbs up to the hill. After a distance of approximately 1500 metres the road will end on the top of Bauchop’s Hill (19) (40.25748,26.29133), about eighty metres high. There is a small white building nearby, upon which you get a panoramic view of the North Anzac battlefield. The hill is named after Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Bauchop, who commanded the Otago Mounted Rifles.

Bauchop, a veteran of the Boer War, was tasked with capturing the Turkish strongpoint on this foothill during the night of 6 August. As with No. 3 Outpost, seizing this hill was one of the few successes of the offensive. Born and bred in New Zealand, he was a saw-miller before becoming a career soldier. He received gunshot wounds to the spine during the morning of 7 August and was evacuated to a hospital ship, HMHS Delta. He died three days later on 10 August and was buried at sea. He is commemorated on Panel 72 of the Lone Pine Memorial.

From the top of Bauchop’s Hill there are some great views of this ‘mad country’. To the north is Aghyl Dere, and views into Australia Valley, the incorrect fork that Monash’s Australians took when exiting Taylor’s Gap, believing it to be Aghyl Dere. Aghyl Dere itself forks; the northern gully leading towards the objective of Hill 971; the southern is the route the Gurkhas followed on their route to Chamchak Punar and Hill Q. If you look to the east, at the Sari Bair ridge, all the landmarks are visible including; Chunuk Bair, with the two white memorials and with The Farm Cemetery nestled below. Moving left, along the ridgeline, is Hill Q and then the highest point, Hill 971, marked today by the forestry lookout tower. Below is the bare slope of the Abdul Rahman Spur. The narrow precipitous ridge line that leads in the direction of the Farm is Cheshire Ridge and the flat topped cliff in the foreground is Little Table Top. To the right of Cheshire Ridge is Rhododendron Spur, which leads up to Chunuk Bair from ‘Big’ Table Top.

Leave Bauchop’s Hill and return down the same track back to Beach Road.

End of diversion.