SALONIKA (LEMBET ROAD) MILITARY CEMETERY

Thessalonika

​Greece

​Location Information

The Cemetery is located at 192 Langada Street on the Serres highway approximately 2 km north of Thessaloniki city centre on the west side of Langada Street. The cemetery is inside a very large, mainly First World War Allied cemetery containing Serbaian, French and Italian casualties and is known locally as ‘’Zeitenlik’’ and is to the rear of the Serbian, French and Italian sections. The main entrance to the CWGC cemetery is clearly signposted on Langada Street. 


Visiting Information

The Cemetery is permanently open and may be visited at any time. 


Historical Information

At the invitation of the Greek Prime Minister, M.Venizelos, Salonika (now Thessalonika) was occupied by three French Divisions and the 10th (Irish) Division from Gallipoli in October 1915. Other French and Commonwealth forces landed during the year and in the summer of 1916, they were joined by Russian and Italian troops. In August 1916, a Greek revolution broke out at Salonika, with the result that the Greek national army came into the war on the Allied side. 

The town was the base of the British Salonika Force and it contained, from time to time, eighteen general and stationary hospitals. Three of these hospitals were Canadian, although there were no other Canadian units in the force. 

The earliest Commonwealth burials took place in the local Protestant and Roman Catholic cemeteries. Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery (formerly known as the Anglo-French Military Cemetery) was begun in November 1915 and Commonwealth, French, Serbian, Italian and Russian sections were formed. The Commonwealth section remained in use until October 1918, although from the beginning of 1917, burials were also made in Mikra British Cemetery. After the Armistice, some graves were brought in from other cemeteries in Macedonia, Albania and from Scala Cemetery, near Cassivita, on the island of Thasos. 

There are now 1,648 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. The Commonwealth plot also contains 45 Bulgarian and one Serbian war graves.


Cemetery pictures © Demosthenes Lamprinakis
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101257 Private 
Wilfred Ashurst
 Royal Army Medical Corps
Died 29th July 1917.
Grave 287.

Enlisted in Burnley
Lived on Towneley Street, Colne

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R/34429 Rifleman
Albert Aspden Barker
3rd Bn. King's Royal Rifle Corps
28th October 1917.
Grave 1252.

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23205 Private
 Sydney Crossley
9th East Lancashire Regiment
Died 23rd June 1917, 
aged 26.
Grave 1073.

Son of Herbert and Ellen Ann Crossley, of 6, Marles St., Burnley. Lived at 79 Oxford Road, Burnley.

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DM2/162323 Driver
William Hodgson
Base Mechanical Transport Depot. Army Service Corps
23rd August 1916.
Grave 327.

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13766 Private 
Herbert Killian
East Lancashire Regiment
Died of Wounds 22nd May 1917.
Grave 1044.

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17508 Private
William Cornellius Nobes
"B" Coy. 7th Bn. Royal Berkshire Regiment
30th May 1917, aged 35.
Grave 1056.

Son of John and Maria Nobes, of Bishopstone, Wiltshire.

Picture courtesy of Nick Stallard

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28648 Private
Albert Whitter
20th Stat. Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps
18th July 1917, aged 38.
Grave 1095.

Son of Thomas and Mary Ann nee Dyer, of Shanklin, Isle of Wight and Husband of Emma nee Stallard, of Shanklin, Isle of Wight.

Picture courtesy of Pat Whitter (Granddaughter)

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