CWGC Cemetery: DOIRAN MILITARY CEMETERY

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Local Information

Doiran Military Cemetery is situated in the north of Greece close to the Yugoslav frontier and near the south-east shore of Lake Doiran. It is approximately 2 kilometres behind the village of Doiran and is reached via a farm track after turning left in the village by a large taverna. The Doiran Memorial, is on what was called Colonial Hill, it can be seen from a distance and is clearly signposted.

Historical Information

The cemetery (originally known as Colonial Hill Cemetery No.2) was formed at the end of 1916 as a cemetery for the Doiran front. The graves are almost entirely those of officers and men of the 22nd and 26th Divisions and largely reflect the fighting of April and May 1917 (the attacks on the Petit-Couronne), and 18-19 September 1918 (the attacks on Pip Ridge and the Grand-Couronne). In October and November 1918, after the final advance, a few burials took place from the 25th Casualty Clearing Station. After the Armistice, graves were brought into the cemetery from the battlefields and from by some small burial grounds, the most important of which was Strumnitza British Military Cemetery, north-west of Doiran, made by the 40th Casualty Clearing Station in October and November 1918. DOIRAN MILITARY CEMETERY now contains 1,338 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 449 of them unidentified. There are also one French and 45 Greek war graves. The DOIRAN MEMORIAL, which stands near the cemetery, serves the dual purpose of Battle Memorial of the British Salonika Force (for which a large sum of money was subscribed by the officers and men of that force), and place of commemoration for more than 2,000 Commonwealth servicemen who died in Macedonia and whose graves are not known. The memorial was designed by Sir Robert Lorimer with sculpture by Walter Gilbert.