The AIF Project

The Lone Pine Memorial, situated in the Lone Pine Cemetery at Anzac, is the main Australian Memorial on Gallipoli, and one of four memorials to men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Designed by Sir John Burnet, the principal architect of the Gallipoli cemeteries, it is a thick tapering pylon 14.3 metres high on a square base 12.98 metres wide. It is constructed from limestone mined at Ilgardere in Turkey.

The Memorial commemorates the 3268 Australians and 456 New Zealanders who have no known grave and the 960 Australians and 252 New Zealanders who were buried at sea after evacuation through wounds or disease. The names of New Zealanders commemorated are inscribed on stone panels mounted on the south and north sides of the pylon, while those of the Australians are listed on a long wall of panels in front of the pylon and to either side. Names are arranged by unit and rank.

The Memorial stands over the centre of the Turkish trenches and tunnels which were the scene of heavy fighting during the August offensive. Most cemeteries on Gallipoli contain relatively few marked graves, and the majority of Australians killed on Gallipoli are commemorated here.

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli

Embarked Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli,5 April 1915.

Reported missing, 25 April 1915.

Court of Enquiry, held at Erquinghem, France, 24 April 1916, declared fate to be 'killed in action, 25 April 1915'.

Statement, Red Cross File No 2810506M, 2150 Pte W.H. OWEN, D Company, 6th Bn (patient, St David's Hospital, Malta), 1 Janmuary 1916: 'Very thin and delicate looking, dark, 5 ft 6, 28 to 30, comical. Witness knew him well and from personal enquiries ascertained from several who had themselves seen him, that he was badly wounded in the arm by shrapnel, and it was unlikely that he could recover, also that he had been taken to the beach.'

Second statement, 212 Pte S.E. SERGEANT, 6th Bn (patient, Ghezireh Hospital, Cairo), 7 January 1916: 'Informant believed Vague was wounded and sent away from the Peninsula. He was a personal friend of informant.'

Third statement, 2151 Pte N.S. HACKING, 6th Bn, 22 February 1916: 'Informant states that he knew the casualty who was in the same Company. Informant went to England on the 13th of June, and heard at Harefield from a mate of his (Tom Edwards of the same Company) that the casualty was dead. Edwards said to him "Vague is killed." In addition to this several of informant's mates have since told him that casualty was killed at Cape Helles.'