Beach Cemetery is a small Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...

 cemetery

Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...

 containing the remains of allied troops who died during the Battle of Gallipoli

Battle of Gallipoli

The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign or the Battle of Gallipoli, took place at the peninsula of Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916, during the First World War...

. It is located at Hell Spit, at the southern end of Anzac Cove

Anzac Cove

Anzac Cove is a small cove on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. It became famous as the site of World War I landing of the ANZAC on April 25, 1915. The cove is a mere long, bounded by the headlands of Ari Burnu to the north and Little Ari Burnu, known as Hell Spit, to the south...

 on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The first graves were dug on the day of the landing 25 April 1915 and it continued to be used almost until the evacuation of the Anzac area on 20 December.

The majority of the graves, 285, are from the Australian Imperial Force

Australian Imperial Force

The Australian Imperial Force was the name given to all-volunteer Australian Army forces dispatched to fight overseas during World War I and World War II.* First Australian Imperial Force * Second Australian Imperial Force...

, including that of Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick

John Simpson Kirkpatrick

John 'Jack' Simpson Kirkpatrick , who served under the name John Simpson, was a stretcher bearer with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the Gallipoli Campaign in World War I...

 and three New Zealanders.
It also contains 21 troops from the New Zealand army, 49 British personnel and three from the 80-strong Ceylon Tea Planters’ contingent. The tea planters were used as the Anzac commander, General William Birdwood's bodyguard. There are also 21 graves whose occupants are unknown.

Other notable graves

Apart from Kirkpatrick, other notable graves include those of:

• Royal Navy Commander Edward Cater, of HMS Lord Nelson
  HMS Lord Nelson (1906)
  HMS Lord Nelson was a predreadnought battleship launched in 1906 and completed in 1908. She was the Royal Navy's last predreadnought. The ship was flagship of the Channel Fleet when World War I began in 1914. Lord Nelson was transferred to the Mediterranean Sea in early 1915 to participate in the...
  
  , in charge of the landings site and who was killed by shell fire on 7 August. He was a familiar figure to the troops in the Anzac sector, particularly recognisable because he wore a monacle.

• Colonel Lancelot Clarke of the 12 Battalion Australian Expeditionary Force who was killed on the day of the landing after leading the assault up the Sphinx. At 57, he was probably the oldest Australian soldier to be killed in the campaign.

The cemetery was designed in the 1920s by Sir John Burnet

John Burnet

John Burnet may refer to:* John Burnet * John Burnet , Pastor in Camberwell; abolitionist* John Burnet...

, and was registered as a cultural heritage site by the Turkish Ministry of Culture on 14 November 1980.