The arrival of the Ottoman ships to Liverpool and Plymouth and Their Significance in British Muslim History

This is the 170-year-old account of an almost completely forgotten legacy of the Ottoman warships that came to England, bringing together around 2,500 Ottoman sailors, and the unknown Ottoman graves still remaining beneath houses and public parks. By exploring these Ottoman graves, I aim to offer readers another perspective on the history of Islam in Britain, demonstrating that the presence of such a large number of Muslim sailors as early as the nineteenth century definitely deserves much greater attention. This was the first time in British history that such a large number of sailors from a Muslim state were present in Britain at one time. These sailors interacted with the local population: they traded, married, died, and some even converted to Christianity. However, all of these activities were almost entirely forgotten until my research on the Ottoman presence in Britain. In this respect, I will particularly explore the graves of the Ottoman sailors who died in Liverpool and Plymouth.

Figure 1 25 June.1856 the first article that I found at Liverpool Mercury on the funeral of Hassan Mehmed

Some readers may already be curious about how I discovered this completely forgotten legacy of the Ottoman sailors, who had such a significant presence in the above-mentioned cities. Therefore, it may be beneficial to provide some background information. In 2021, while searching for a PhD topic, I came across, by coincidence, the funeral notice of an Ottoman sailor, Hasan Mehmed, in the British Newspaper Archive. From that point onwards, it was a snowball effect. During my research at the Liverpool Record Office and the Ottoman Archives, I discovered primary sources documenting the residence of the Ottoman sailors and identified the burial records of all the Ottoman sailors buried at Liverpool Necropolis. I would also like to offer a piece of advice to readers who are interested in the history of Islam in Britain. While conducting research in the archives, I realised that an original contribution to the literature can only be achieved by consulting different archives. I admit that this process is often boring and time-consuming, but once you assemble all the pieces from various archives, a truly original study begins to emerge.

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Figure 2 In the middle of Liverpool Necropolis, now Grant Gardens, was the first Muslim burial ground until 1898.

In the following years, I decided to expand my research by investigating other Ottoman warships that had visited Liverpool, Manchester, and Plymouth. To understand this story, it is important to provide some historical background. During the Crimean War, the Ottoman Empire and Britain were allies. Immediately after the war, British ports became one of the few safe destinations for the remaining Ottoman warships, as much of the Ottoman navy had been destroyed by the Russians at Sinop in 1853. At the time, British officials believed that a strong Ottoman navy was essential to counter Russian expansion, leading to a period of technical modernisation under British guidance.As a result, between 1856 and 1859, four Ottoman warships were sent to Britain. The Geyvan-ı Bahri was stationed in Liverpool between June 1856 and May 1857, while three other warships—Peyk-i Zafer, Fethiye, and Şadiye—were sent to Plymouth between 1856 and 1859 for the installation of guns, propellers, and other machinery. As these ships were accompanied by large numbers of Ottoman naval personnel who were expected to improve their technical knowledge of modern naval technology, they collectively brought around 2,500 Ottoman sailors and naval officers to Britain.

During their stay in these two port cities, the Ottoman warships attracted considerable public attention, as they were among the first Ottoman warships to appear in Britain. Their arrival was widely reported in the local press, with newspapers covering the visits for several days. As Britain and the Ottoman Empire were allies, Ottoman naval officers were frequently invited to dinners, hotel inaugurations, and other social events as representatives of their respective countries. Furthermore, it was not uncommon for Ottoman sailors to marry English women. In particular, while searching the birth records on Ancestry, I identified several children in Plymouth with Turkish names whose fathers were Ottoman sailors. One remarkable example is that of the Ottoman naval officer Mahmoud Efendi, who converted to Christianity and married an English woman. He was later sent to Constantinople to undertake missionary work.^[1]

There was also the legacy of the graves of the 112 Ottoman sailors who died as a consequence of epidemic diseases and were buried in Liverpool and Plymouth. I will begin with Liverpool. The Ottoman frigate Bahr-i Geyvan was sent to Liverpool for modernisation purposes and remained in the city between June 1856 and May 1857. During its stay, 28 members of its crew died, and they were buried in a burial ground of approximately 20 square metres within Liverpool Necropolis, one of the first private cemeteries in the country. The burial ground was purchased by the Ottoman government. After the departure of the frigate on 9 May 1857, the Turkish graves were forgotten for decades by both the local population and the Ottoman authorities due to the absence of a permanent Ottoman mission.

The graves were rediscovered in the 1890s. At that time, there was a well-organised Muslim community in Liverpool under the leadership of its charismatic leader, Abdullah Quilliam. As commerce and shipping with the Middle East, India, and Africa expanded, Muslims from every corner of the world visited the city in search of opportunities. Eventually, some of these Muslims died in Liverpool, and because their families were far away, responsibility for their funerals was undertaken by Quilliam. Consequently, his community became sufficiently organised to conduct a number of Muslim burials.

Due to being both within walking distance of the Muslim Institute and already containing Turkish graves, Liverpool Necropolis remained the primary burial ground actively used by the LMI. However, in August 1899, the necropolis was closed after the number of interments crossed the 80,000 mark, far exceeding its capacity and leading to unsanitary conditions. Local residents lodged numerous complaints over a foul smell, which they believed was coming from the cemetery.

Due to his close personal ties with Quilliam, Mehmed Kamil was fully aware of the Liverpool Muslims’ concern over the closure of the burial ground. He had also researched well about the Turkish sailors who were buried there. The same year, Kamil prepared a comprehensive report for the Sultan regarding the closure of the Liverpool Necropolis and suggested “acquiring a suitable piece of land nearby and turning it into a Muslim cemetery”, and transferring the remains of the aforementioned martyrs there. Despite Kamil’s attempt to establish a Muslim cemetery, his request went to the Sultan unheeded. The most likely explanation is financial: the Ottoman economy was strained by the capitulations and had recently suffered a significant blow from the war with Greece in 1897, which had further weakened its already fragile state. The following year, in 1900, he followed a bureaucratic course and repeated his request to the Ottoman ambassador in London, Anthopoulos Pasha. This time, possibly realising that the Ottoman authorities were unwilling to commit substantial funds, Kamil limited his proposal to purchasing a small piece of land outside Liverpool and transferring the graves of the deceased Ottoman soldiers there, without mentioning his original plan to establish a Muslim Cemetery in Liverpool.

In this second attempt, he succeeded in attracting the attention of the Foreign Minister, Ahmed Tevfik Pasha, who instructed Kamil to first attempt to convince the local authorities to allocate new graves for each deceased Ottoman soldier in exchange for removing the existing ones. If this were not feasible, Pasha recommended purchasing a small plot of land for the Ottoman martyrs. However, this plan, too, did not succeed, as the Liverpool City Council informed Kamil in August 1900 that a viable solution could only be found once the Corporation officially authorised the removal of the bodies. After Kamil’s departure from Liverpool, concern about where the Muslim deceased would be buried gradually faded from the Liverpool Muslim community’s public agenda. Until 1914, to show respect for the relatives of those buried in Liverpool Necropolis, the Corporation maintained the graves in their original state. Ultimately, on 22 April 1914, the grounds were officially inaugurated as a public park, renamed Grand Gardens. Currently, the remains of the Ottoman soldiers are still beneath the public park, alongside the remains of ten other Muslims who were buried by Abdullah Quilliam. Recently, Liverpool City Council approved a project for the erection of a memorial stone.

Figure 3 Peyk-i Zafer (BOSTAN İdris (2005), Kürekli ve Yelkenli Osmanlı Gemileri, İstanbul, 314-315)

In terms of Plymouth, the existing sources show that there were more Ottoman sailors from the three warships Peyk-i Zafer, Sadiye, and Fethiye, with a total of around 2,050 sailors in the port, and eventually 84 Turkish soldiers died. Eighteen of the Turkish soldiers from the Peyk-i Zafer, which resided in Plymouth between September 1856 and June 1857, were buried in Ford Park Cemetery, a private cemetery that was established in 1847. Despite the Ottoman authorities wanting to purchase a separate burial plot from the cemetery, this was not realised due to the opposition of Thomas Were Fox, the Ottoman Consul at Plymouth, and Musurus Pasha, the Ottoman Ambassador in London. Therefore, they were regarded as common graves, and from 1861 onwards, the graves began to be reused by the cemetery. Currently, the graves of the 18 Ottoman soldiers are still located; however, upon 14 of the graves, other burials were subsequently made. Possibly due to the distance and the high death toll, when the other Ottoman warships came to Plymouth between 1857 and 1859, the remaining sixty-six Turkish sailors were buried in the burial ground adjacent to the Stonehouse Royal Naval Hospital (RNH), commonly known as No Place Cemetery. However, this cemetery gradually fell out of use during the late nineteenth century as newer cemeteries, such as Ford Park Cemetery, became the principal burial grounds for the town. Burials of Royal Navy personnel at No Place continued until 1897, while the last recorded burial took place in 1912. The cemetery was subsequently closed to new burials and later transformed into what is now No Place Memorial Garden. Immediately after identifying the eighteen Ottoman graves, I communicated with the Turkish Embassy, and currently, in cooperation with Ford Park Cemetery, correspondence is taking place between the two parties regarding the erection of a memorial. The precise location of the 66 Ottoman graves has not yet been identified, as the burial records were first transferred to the Royal Naval Hospital in Haslar and subsequently to The National Archives at Kew. However, the relevant documents have not yet been identified.

Figure 4 The graves of the 18 Ottoman sailors, marked with white flags, at Ford Park Cemetery.

For further reading

Muhammed Hasanov, “The Forgotten Turkish Graves at Liverpool Necropolis and Mehmed Kamil Bey’s Attempt to Establish a Muslim Cemetery in the City,” Études balkaniques (Sofia) 2026, no. 1: 172-197

^[1] “Protestant Missions in Turkey,”3 September 1864, Catholic Telegraph, 4.