Remembering Rutland soldiers buried in Baghdad

We’re grateful to Karen Peek who was recently in Baghdad and kindly visited Baghdad (North Gate) Cemetery on behalf of Rutland Remembers. We have three soldiers buried there: Arthur Bailey from Ketton, William Batts from Oakham and Horace Green from Preston. Unfortunately the cemetery is in a bad state of repair. As the picture shows, it’s far from the ordered beauty of other Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries around the world, which is hardly surprising given the cirumstances in Iraq at the moment.

It’s also a very dangerous place to visit and Karen wasn’t able to find all three Rutland graves before having to leave the cemetery for safety reasons. But she did lay a cross on our behalf at the Stone of Remembrance,at the 15th Division Memorial and at the graves of Arthur Bailey and Horace Green. There are pictures on their pages. So thank you Karen. Iraq is clearly one of the most challenging places to leave crosses – other countries in the world where Rutlanders are buried should be much easier!