Addolorata Cemetery

This article looks at the Addolorata Cemetery. To view more guides to Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries on Malta click on the link below:

Addolorata Cemetery

The Addolorata Cemetery is the largest on the island of Malta and was designed by Emmanuel Luigi Galizia who was also designed the Ta-Braxia Cemetery. The cemetery is an imposing site close to the capital of Valletta and contains the graves of 267 servicemen from both the First and Second World War. Due to the cemetery’s vast size its best to ask for directions at the office by the main gate to the two plots maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).Addolorata Cemetery Malta 1

The Cross of Sacrifice is located in the main plot cared for by the (CWGC) which is behind the impressive chapel. The CWGC information panel can be seen in the foreground of the cemetery. The majority of burials are in joint graves, which was the norm for CWGC burials in Malta. This was due to Malta’s shallow earth, and the need to cut graves into the rock below. Below is a typical example of a collective burial containing three soldiers of the First World War who died in June 1918.Addolorata Cemetery Malta In the graves around the Cross of Sacrifice the global nature of the First World War can be seen: Taiawhiao Te Whare who served with the New Zealand Maori Contingent; Arthur Edward Caldwel, 4th Battalion Australian Imperial Force born at Young, New South Wales; Cyril Aind Jitbanhan who served with the Indian Labour Corps; Ernest Ellis, 5th Battalion British West Indies Regiment, from British Honduras, whose grave is pictured below.Addolorata Cemetery Malta EllisPrivate Ernest Ellis served with the 5th Battalion, British West Indies Regiment (BWIR). The BWIR was a war-raised regiment which recruited its soldiers from all over the British West Indies, though the majority of soldiers came from Jamaica.Addolorata Cemetery Malta 1Malta had a garrison of British troops both prior to and after the First World War, so you will find the graves of British soldiers scattered all over the cemetery. Below is the grave of Lance Corporal Alfred Graffet Neal, 3rd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifles Corps, who died at Malta of peritonitis following a ruptured appendix on 22 November 1908. It is common to find photographs of the deceased incorporated into Maltese graves, though many from this period haven’t survived. Alfred’s brother Maurice also served with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, and the diary he kept during the First World War has been published A Long Way to Tipperary?