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A small introduction

GILGIL WAR CEMETERY

This cemetery is primarily for the Muslim community.

It has casualties from Second World War.

LOCATION INFORMATION

Gilgil is a small township  Nakuru County, approximately 120 kilometres from Nairobi on the main road to Nakuru, which is about 38 kilometres beyond Gilgil. On entering Gilgil take the turning right at the Petrol Station and drive for 2 kilometres.

Take the dirt track left at the Railway Crossing and the Cemetery is 400 metres down on the left. The cemetery is signposted from the centre of the town.

HISTORY

During the Second World War, Nairobi was the headquarters of the East African Force and the base for the conquest of Jubaland and Italian Somaliland, the liberation of British Somaliland and the sweep north-westwards to open Addis Ababa for the return of the Emperor.

It was also a hospital centre; No.87 British General Hospital arrived in June 1943 and was still there in December 1945, while No.150 British General Hospital was there for a period in 1943. Nairobi (Kariokor) Cemetery contains 59 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, three of which are unidentified.

ORIGIN

The early European explorers found African porters to be invaluable for their forays inland, serving both as guides and porters. A new division of British forces known as Carrier Corps was created during World War 1 to provide military labour to support the East African Campaign against the German military forces led by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.

The Carrier Corps consisted of a conscripted African labour force and the recruitment and pay centre was at a place that soon became known as Kariokor (a mispronunciation of “Carrier Corps”), next to what was then the racecourse. In 1919, King George V formed a Commonwealth Graves Commission to recover as many bodies as possible of British soldiers in the battlefields and accord them decent burial. According to John Wilson, a historian, as the remains of Europeans were being collected in 1922, it was discovered that Africans and Indians had been forgotten.

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