Historical Update: Report identifies lost cemetery in Dar-Es-Salaam

Combining archival research from Tanzania and the UK, the CWGC’s Non-Commemoration Programme has identified the probable location of a cemetery for potentially thousands of African carriers who died in British service during the First World War.

Although the location in Dar-es-Salaam has been extensively developed over the past century, these findings confirm what has long been assumed about missing burials and provide a starting point for conversations about future commemorations in the city. 

Following the same methodology adopted to search for evidence of lost cemeteries in Mombasa, this report focuses on Dar-es-Salaam – the capital of what was German East Africa, which was occupied by British forces in early September 1916.

On publishing the report, CWGC Official Historian and Non-Commemorations Programme research lead Dr George Hay said: “Like Mombasa, Dar-es-Salaam has always been a focus of the Programme’s attentions. It was a significant seaport in the East Africa Campaign of the First World War and played host to a sizeable carrier depot. The city is also known to have contained four hospitals serving the wartime military population, including the largest carrier hospital in East Africa.

Given what is known about casualty figures within carrier units, it has long been accepted that Dar-es-Salaam must have provided burial grounds for those who died there. However, very few of those commemorated by name in the CWGC’s existing sites in the city served with carrier units. Until now, the whereabouts of these men was unknown.”

A range of historical documents sourced from archives in the UK and Tanzania has enabled the research team to accurately map for the first time carrier operations in Dar-es-Salaam, including the depot and extensive hospital facilities. More significantly, however, correspondence and other records have finally enabled them to identify the probable location of the burial ground of potentially thousands of carriers who died there during the conflict.

Although these findings sadly show that the area in question was extensively developed following the war, we now have a much more meaningful understanding of what happened to these men. Their confirmed presence in Dar-es-Salaam provides a powerful starting point for conversations about how they should be memorialised.

Read the full research report for Dar-es-Salaam

Image: Sister and two orderlies outside hospital banda, Carrier Depot Hospital, Dar-es-Salaam (TNA, WO 141/31)