Continue on for a further 650 metres to 7th Field Ambulance CWGC Cemetery (20) (40.26156,26.28103). The cemetery is on low ground, called Walden Grove, under the shelter of the hill known as Walden’s Point (sometimes spelt Waldron’s Point), between Chailak Dere and Aghyl Dere. This area was secured during the night of 6 August. The area is believed to be named after Private Colin Warden (note the misspelling), who is commemorated on Panel 11 on the Chunuk Bair Memorial. Warden was an accomplished scout, sniper and machine gunner who was killed at The Apex on 8 August whilst commanding a Maori Contingent machine gun. Captain Jessie Wallingford wrote: had he lived, he was a marvel, and would have made an excellent brigade machine gun officer.
The original cemetery was actually first created by the 4th Field Ambulance, but named after the 7th Australian Field Ambulance, which landed on Gallipoli in September 1915, but over 350 of the graves were brought in from earlier cemeteries after the Armistice. The majority of the burials are from 54th (East Anglian) Division and date from September onwards, and are not Australian as you might have expected. There are still numerous August casualties buried here, including burials of men of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles who cleared the Turkish outposts. The smaller burial grounds in the area were known as Bedford Ridge, West Ham Gully, Waldren’s Point, Essex, Aghyl Dere, Eastern Mounted Brigade, Suffolk, Hampshire Lane Nos. 1 and 2, Australia Valley, 116th Essex, 1/8th Hampshire, Norfolk, Junction and 1/4th Northants. There are now 640 Commonwealth servicemen from the campaign buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 276 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate 207 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. The graves represent three periods of the campaign; Sari Bair (7-10 August), Hill 60 (21-29 August) and those from September onwards.
Amongst those buried here are Major Percy Overton (II.A.5) and Private Malcolm McInnes (II.A.4), Canterbury Mounted Rifles, NZEF. Overton and McInnes were scouts who had been actively reconnoitring the maze of valleys and scrub-covered spurs before the offensive, providing valuable intelligence of the country that led up to the heights of Chunuk Bair and Hill 971. Malcolm McInnes, who was from Canterbury, had a brother, Alex, who was killed at Gallipoli with the Canterbury Battalion in May 1915. During one of his reconnaissances behind Turkish lines, Overton took McInnes and a Corporal Young. They were out for two nights and a day and in his words: we had a most exciting and interesting time dodging Turkish outposts. It was from these trips that he was able to map this unknown country as well as to provide valuable information on the Turks’ positions and movements. Percy Overton was from Christchurch, a sheep farmer before the war. He served in the Boer War as a trooper in the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, ending the war as a lieutenant in the NZ Contingent. On 4 August 1914, he was appointed a major in the Canterbury Mounted Rifles; he was killed in Aghyl Dere on 7 August 1915. He was originally buried in Warley Gap, but after the war his grave was moved here. He also had a brother in the war, Guy, who was mortally wounded at Walden’s Knob with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles. Guy died of his wounds on a hospital ship on 10 August, and is commemorated on Panel 71 on the Lone Pine Memorial.
Major Acton Adams, Canterbury Mounted Rifles, wrote about the two scouts:
For the general attack Major Overton was detached from the Canterbury Mounted Rifles and given the special mission of leading the Gurkha Brigade to their place of attack, they being ignorant of the country, whilst he, as you are aware, had been tireless in scouting, map-making, etc. To accompany him he chose Malcolm McInnes, one of my best scouts. We were all delighted, and were saying it would mean a D.S.O. for the major, as we all knew his absolute disregard of danger. The next scrap of news we heard was from an interpreter, who stated that the Turks were pressing hotly. Major Overton told him to look after a prisoner, and rushed back to see what he could do. Word of his fate came through, and here one feels that people at home have no conception of how little one knows beyond one’s own regiment; everybody is working at top speed, and in a crisis such as this, there is no intercommunication. Still, on the word coming, I sent Sergeant Evans and Trooper Edwards to obtain all possible information and to mark the grave. Evans’s report was that he crawled within a few yards and saw the grave, but it was right under Turkish fire; an officer was using his glasses and revolver, and begged to be allowed to purchase them, having none; that a sergeant of the Sikhs reported M. McInnes as having been wounded and taken away to hospital. The major’s map case he brought back. Next morning I sent Evans back again for the revolver and glasses, which we judged would be precious relics to you and his sons. But before he returned, I was sent myself on to this ship, and can only hope that someone will be able to hold them for you. From a soldier’s point of view, it is a lot to us that your husband was killed by no accident of chance shot but in a position that will always raise a thrill of pride whenever we of his regiment speak of our fearless major.44
There are two British battalion commanders buried here:
Lieutenant Colonel Sir William Lennox Napier (Sp.Mem.A.105), 4/SWB, was killed by a sniper on 13 August. Born in Canada, he succeeded his father to the baronetcy aged only 17. Educated at Uppingham and Cambridge, he was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple, becoming a solicitor in 1902. During this period he held a commission in the Royal Sussex Artillery, later transferring to 7/RWF, from which he retired in 1912 as lieutenant colonel. At the outbreak of war in 1914 he was gazetted into 4/SWB before proceeding to Gallipoli. Napier had three sons in the war, one was Lieutenant Sir Joseph William Lennox, 4th Bart., who served in the same battalion at Gallipoli and was twice wounded.
Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Richard Cole-Hamilton (Sp.Mem.B.5), he served in Egypt in 1882 with the Royal Scots and then saw out his military career in Ireland with the Royal Irish Rifles; when the Great War began he became the commanding officer of 6/East Lancs.
Close by to the south is Taylor’s Hollow, a flat area used by the artillery as well as for bivouacs for troops. It was believed to be named after Lieutenant George Taylor, Canterbury Mounted Rifles, a school master before the war, who regularly scouted in this area. Between Walden’s and Bauchop’s Hill was a narrow path that became known at Taylor’s Gap. Note the Taylor’s Gap information panel by the road.
An hour’s walk through fields and an overgrown track.
There has been a lot of emphasis placed on the use of the Taylor’s Gap ‘shortcut’ as one of the contributing factors in the failure of Monash’s Brigade to achieve its objective of Hill 971. However, even if Taylor’s Gap had been by-passed, the outcome probably have been the same. The story was told that Major Percy Overton was using a local miller, of Greek origin, as a guide and when they were approaching Walden’s Point, which according to the plan they should go around, the Greek suggested that a shortcut through Taylor’s Gap would save them half an hour. Already conscious that the column was behind schedule, Overton eventually agreed that the ‘shortcut’ was the best option. This narrow pass would be fine for one man and his mule, but for a brigade it proved to be a disaster. Not only was it narrow and overgrown in many areas, but the Turks were in the hills and firing down onto the column. The pioneers had to be sent forward to cut a path through it and, even though the passage itself is less than 300 metres in length, it took over two hours for the head of the column to pass through it into Aghyl Dere.
Major Overton took the shortcut to save time and also to avoid the machine gun position that the Turks then had on Walden’s Point. Unfortunately the delay caused by the overgrown, narrow goat track delayed the brigade reaching Aghyl Dere. When the brigade did emerge two hours later there was confusion in the dark and Overton lost his bearings and directed the Australians into the wrong valley.