RANGOON WAR CEMETERY
Yangon
Myanmar
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 16.81157, Longitude: 96.13381
Location Information
Rangoon War cemetery is situated between Myienegone and Manthawaddy roundabout (close to the circle) and at the back of Burma Translation Society (Sarbaybeikmann).
The entrance to the cemetery is in a lane facing east along PYI road (formerly Prome Road) some 8 kilometres from the port, 12 kilometres from the airport and 5 kilometres from the main railway station. Monasteries surround the cemetery on three sides.
Visiting Information
The cemetery is tended by locally engaged staff and a Caretaker resides on site. The cemetery is open everyday between 07:00-17:00.
Wheelchair access to this cemetery is possible via the main entrance.
Historical Information
Rangoon War Cemetery was first used as a burial ground immediately following the recapture of Rangoon in May 1945. Later, the Army Graves Service moved in graves from several burial sites in and around Rangoon, including those of the men who died in Rangoon Jail as prisoners of war.
There are now 1,381 Commonwealth servicemen of the Second World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 86 of the burials are unidentified and there are special memorials to more than 60 casualties whose graves could not be precisely located.
In 1948, the graves of 36 Commonwealth servicemen who died in Rangoon during the First World War were moved into this cemetery, 35 of them from Rangoon Cantonment Cemetery and one from Rangoon (Pazundaung) Town Cemetery.
Total Burials: 1,417.
World War One Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 32, India 3, Australia 1. Total 36.
World War Two Identified Casualties: United Kingdom 844, India 440, Australia 6, Canada 4, New Zealand 1. Total 1,295.
World War Two Unidentified Casualties: 86.
Group portrait of participants commencing No 7 Pilots' Course at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria.
Identified in the back row, 6th from the left and buried in this cemetery is 408075 Sergeant Roswell Aubrey Headlam, Royal Australian Air Force who was killed in an accident in Burma on 24th January 1942, aged 24. Plot 3. B. 18. Son of David Aubrey and Lilla Gertrude Headlam, of Bellerive, Tasmania, Australia. His headstone bears the inscription "Vivit Post Funera Virtus"