Mark. Fitzgerald

Country Supervisor for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Malta. All views and opinions are my own.

[UK in Malta 🇬🇧🇲🇹 @UKinMalta]

On the 70th anniversary of the inauguration of the Malta Memorial, British High Commissioner @CathyWardFCDO laid a wreath alongside @president_mt, other diplomats and veterans in remembrance of the fallen airmen who served in the Commonwealth Air Forces.

#lestweforget

[Νele Bille @NeleBille]

Meet Alfred, @CWGC gardener for 8 years at Pieta Military Cemetery in Malta 🇲🇹

#WeAreCWGC #CWGCstaff 🌎

https://t.co/l1kHiDrrzO

[Νele Bille @NeleBille]

Meet Jesmond, static #CWGC gardener at Imtarfa Military Cemetery for 28 years. Together with @MarkFitzi he was presented his #CWGC long service pin and certificate 🏆

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

Gunner Charles Smart, Royal Horse Artillery, died on this day in 1916. Originally from Leicester, he served with B-Battery at Gallipoli and died in a Maltese hospital.

📍Pieta Military Cemetery 🇲🇹

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

@FXMC1957 While in Malta I found the grave of a soldier who served in the same battalion as Clement Attlee.

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

A fairly early #WW2 grave belonging to Colonel Reginald Hunter OBE, Royal Engineers. Son of Major General Woodburn Hunter, he had a long military career as he was commissioned in the @Proud_Sappers as a second lieutenant in December 1903.

📍Pieta Military Cemetery 🇲🇹

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

A brother Edwin Lawty was held as a POW in Germany after the Battle of Mons. This article states that eleven nephews of the family were serving. 2/🧵

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

Twice wounded at Gallipoli, Pte Percy Lawty, Yorkshire Regiment, died of his wounds at St Elmo Hospital, Malta. The 18-year-old from Scarborough was one of seven brothers who served their country during #WW1. 1/🧵

📍Pieta Military Cemetery

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

@footsteps_pod I’m sure there’d be a few who’d listen to a three-hour episode! Hearing about Lt Macmaster’s brush with the law made me think about a news article I stumbled across when looking up a Warwickshire soldier buried in Malta. I’m sure you wouldn’t approve of Pte Haynes pre-war crime…

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

Lance Serjeant James Bridge, 6th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment, died in Malta of wounds received at Gallipoli. He served in the same battalion as future prime minister Clement Attlee. I wonder if their paths ever crossed.

📍Pieta Military Cemetery 🇲🇹

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

Rifleman Lal Sing Thapa, Gurkha Rifles, died of wounds in Malta and was cremated at Lazaretto Cemetery. He is now commemorated by the @CWGC on a memorial at Pieta Military Cemetery. He was the son of Tulsiran Thapa, of Kangkrum, Palpa, Nepal. 🇳🇵

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

Private William Burbidge, Surrey Yeomanry (Queen Mary’s Regiment), died at Intarfa Hospital, Malta, on this day in 1916. He died of wounds received in the Salonika campaign.

📍Pieta Military Cemetery

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

In 1929, the father of Pte Walter Hebbard would be sailing to England. The ship would stop at Malta, where Walter was buried in 1915, for just 6 hours. Mr Hebbard wrote to enquire how far it was from the port to the cemetery. I really hope he managed to visit his son’s grave.

[Historic Dunkeld @HistoricDunkeld]

@DanielJPhelan_ @MarkFitzi @Gallipoli100 @WW1TheGreatWar @GreatWarGroup @sommecourt @PaMemorial @OldFrontLinePod @footsteps_pod Thomas Rodger, enlisted in Dunkeld on the 7th September 1914 age 18. He sailed to Gallipoli on the ship Transylvania and re-equipped as infantry on the way. They landed at Suvla Bay on 2nd Sept 1915. The rest of the regiment were evacuated on 28th December 1915.

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

Shoeing-Smith Thomas Macfarlane Rodger, 1/2nd Scottish Horse, died aged 19, from wounds received at Gallipoli. He was the second son of Mr & Mrs John Rodger, Hillyland, Perth.

Thomas’ skills must have been vital to the work of his yeomanry regiment.

📍Pieta Military Cemetery

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

Hurricane pilot Eric Kelsey, from Coventry, was reported as ‘missing believed killed’ in January 1942 after falling to return from an operational flight off the coast of Malta. His name is included on the Malta Memorial along with over 2,200 other airmen who have no known grave.

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

Pte Thomas Pinkey Cooper from Whitby, North Yorkshire, served with the Royal Marines Medical Unit as part of the Royal Naval Division. He left England for the Dardanelles in June 1915, and died of dysentery aboard HMHS Devantia in August 1915.

📍Buried Pieta Military Cemetery.

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

Nuneaton submariner Reginald Tallis was killed aboard HMS Parthian in August 1943. Reginald’s submarine left Malta on 22 July and was reported overdue at Beirut on 11 August. With no known grave, he is named alongside 24,654 fellow sailors on the @CWGC Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

Another Coventry airman named on the @CWGC Malta Memorial is Sergeant John Gilbert Steele. He was the navigator onboard Beaufighter EL274 which was shot down in May 1943, ten miles west of Cape Granitola, Italy. Canadian Pilot Officer Don Weston Frazee was also killed...1/2

[Dan P @DanielJPhelan_]

Sapper Ernest Blunt, Royal Engineers 11th Signal Company, died of enteric fever in Malta, in 1915.

Originally from Royston, Cambridgeshire, he died six months after his enlistment into the field telephone section. In civilian life he’d been an overseer at the Post Office.