Haydarpaşa Cemetery

Haydarpaşa Cemetery, also known as Haidar Pasha Cemetery, Istanbul (Turkish: Haydarpaşa İngiliz Mezarlığı), located in the Haydarpaşa neighborhood of Üsküdar district in the Asian part of Istanbul, Turkey, is a burial ground established initially for British military personnel, who took part in the Crimean War (1854-1856). The cemetery holds also graves of Commonwealth soldiers from the two World Wars, and civilians of British nationality.

Crimean War graves

The cemetery was first established for British soldiers from the Crimean War, who died mostly as the result of cholera epidemic in the first organized military hospital in modern history created by Florence Nightingale. Around 6,000 soldiers died during the war in the Selimiye Barracks (aka Scutari Barracks) in Istanbul, which was converted into a military hospital. The graves of the dead, of which only a few are marked today, were placed at two separate plots on a hillside close to the Sea of Marmara next to the military hospital. The land, formerly owned by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1495-1566) , was donated to the British Government in 1855. The two plots were linked in 1867 by a second land grant.

An obelisk was erected in 1857 by Queen Victoria (1819-1901) within the cemetery to commemorate the British soldiers from the Crimean War. 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, bears the inscription:

"To Florence Nightingale, whose work near this Cemetery a century ago relieved much human suffering and laid the foundations for the nursing profession."

Other monuments in the cemetery include a symbolic broken column in memorial of German Jäger officers who fell in the Crimea, and a British memorial, which was erected 1855 initially in the Therapia Crimean Cemetery (today Tarabya on the European part of Istanbul) and later transferred here together with the graves of 18 personnel of Royal Navy and Royal Marines who died in the sultan’s mansion, which was converted into a military hospital in Therapia .

Civilian burials

Since 1867, more than 700 civilians are interred in a separate section within the cemetery. Among them is the grave of Sir Edward Barton, British ambassador of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) to the Sublime Porte between 1588 and 1596, who died in 1598 on the island of Heybeliada in the Sea of Marmara, and his remains were transferred later here. A chapel in memory of Sir Nicholas O’Conor-Don, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1898 to 1908, is another historic monument in this plot.

Some military graves outside of the World War periods are also located in this section.

World War graves

There are just over 400 graves of military personnel from World War I, who died in Turkey mostly as prisoners of war or some during the occupation of Istanbul (1918 to 1923) after the Armistice of Mudros.

Two other memorials of World War I are found in the cemetery, one bearing the names of a little over 200 soldiers of United Kingdom and Undivided India, who fell in various parts of Russia or on the borders of Turkey, and whose burial grounds could not be maintained. The other memorial is dedicated to the servicemen of the Indian Army, who died between 1919 and 1920 in the prisoner-of-war camps in southern Turkey near Adana and were interred in the Maslak and Osmaniye Indian Cemeteries. In 1961, when those cemeteries could not be further maintained, the earth with the ashes of the cremated remains of these men was transferred here and scattered near the monument, and the remains of their Muslim comrades were re-interred.

In addition to the burials of World War I, graves of 38 servicemen of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force and one pilot of the Australian Imperial Force, who were all killed in action in the Mediterranean Theatre of World War II at the borders of then neutral Turkey, are found in the Haydarpaşa Cemetery.

Notable burials

  • Count Richard Guyon (aka Hurşid Pasha), Turkish Pasha of French descent, Hungarian nationalist and general, hero of the Hungarian Revolution in 1848-49, born in England – killed in action on October 11, 1856 in the Crimean War.
  • Marian Langiewicz - a Polish patriot notable as a military leader of the January Uprising of 1863.
  • Dr. Alexander McGrigor – British physician, who worked together with Florence Nightingale in the Selimiye Barracks

Administration

Until 1925, the British Government was directly responsible for the maintenance of the cemetery. From then on, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has taken over the duty on behalf of the British Government.

Location

The cemetery is situated today between the military hospital and the Port of Haydarpaşa next to the marshalling yard down on the street Tıbbiye Caddesi from Üsküdar to Kadıköy.

References

External links

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Stephen Morrison
17 April 2015
Don't just look from the outside. You can still go inside the station and see it frozen in time.
Liman ALKU
17 August 2012
That's wonderful place in the golden horn of Istanbul, old ferry station when you are shipping from European side to Asian one of City.
Ömer Yamı
11 November 2014
28 November 2010 a fire caused by carelessness during the building's restoration destroyed the roof and the 4th floor of the terminal building.
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17 August 2012
Sea birds follow the ferries are amazing.everybody like to get back at this place in the future....
Ömer Yamı
11 November 2014
In 1979 a tanker burning on the Bosphorus damaged the terminal building, but was restored a few months later.
Melina Ahmetovic
26 August 2012
Trains are great! Easiest way to reach Pendik.Enjoy your journey and Istanbul ! ;)
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0.3km from Selimiye Mh., GATA Haydarpaşa Eğitim Hst., 34668 Üsküdar/Istanbul Province, Turkey Get directions
Wed Noon–8:00 PM
Thu Noon–9:00 PM
Fri 10:00 AM–9:00 PM
Sat 11:00 AM–9:00 PM
Sun 11:00 AM–8:00 PM
Mon 9:00 AM–10:00 AM

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