Military

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission of the U.K. is responsible for marking and maintaining the graves of those members of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars, for building and maintaining memorials to the dead whose graves are unknown and for providing records and registers of these 1.7 million burials and commemorations.

The Commonwealth war burials in Malta are unlike those found anywhere else. Many joint and collective burials were made as graves had to be cut into the rock underlying the island's shallow earth crust particularly hazardous work during the air-raids of the Second World War. These graves are usually marked by flat tablets that could take several inscriptions and, for the sake of uniformity, the same type of marker was used for single graves. Most of the Commonwealth war burials were made in existing military cemeteries, sometimes in distinct plots, but also scattered among the non-war graves. A few will be found in civil burial grounds.

MALTA

Bormla - Rock Gate Cemetery

As soon as the British forces came to Malta in the early 1800's, they set up in the area around the Grand Harbour with its fortifications. Soon more personnel were stationed here and the need for more cemetery space was felt.

For those around the Three Cities opposite Valletta, an area close to the outer bastions was selected in the vicinity of the naval dockyard to be used especially by the Navy and ancillary trades. Being of limited space it soon filled up after a few decades, covered up and the one at Bighi used instead. The whole area around the harbour was heavily bombed in WWII and the old cemetery took a few hits, then from 1947 to 1950, reconstruction of the surrounding area claimed another chunk with the widening of roads leading to Zabbar. Only a few pieces of headstone from Rock Gate Cemetery exist nowadays, preserved at the Msida Bastion Cemetery.

Floriana - Bastions Cemeteries.

The Quarantine Bastion Cemetery was the largest, but there were also the Cholera Cemetery, Msida Bastion Cemetery and the Greek Orthodox Cemetery.

The Quarantine Bastion Cemetery was enlarged in 1843, but was full by 1868. After the last burials were made in 1868/1869 the cemetery became neglected. Bodies interred in Msida Bastion Cemetery tend to be the upper class civilians, and senior Army and Navy officers. However, this was not a hard and fast rule as the surviving records show. There is also some confusion caused by clergymen using imprecise names to distinguish between the cemeteries being used in this area.

Damage was caused to these cemeteries not only by time and neglect but also by enemy bombing in WWII. However, the greatest destruction of the Quarantine Bastion Cemetery took place in 1943, when it was decided to dump all the fallen debris and masonry from Floriana and Valletta caused by the heavy bombing raids the previous year, on this site. This rubble in-fill operation covered the whole of the Cemetery and brought it up to road level. It was left in this state until 1948/1950 when the authorities, after laying a carpet of topsoil, planted a number of olive trees.

In March 1966 work started on the construction of the Grand Hotel Excelsior on the site and the matured 1940's olive trees were all cut down. The stone gateposts and boundary walls of the cemetery were also totally pulled down. The Grand Hotel Excelsior Hotel eventually closed down and was dismantled. Construction commenced on a new hotel on the site in 1995 and the grounds were extended, taking in the land of the Cholera and Greek Orthodox Cemeteries. The new five star hotel opened for business on 1st October 2007.

In 1993 a team of volunteers from Din L'Art Helwa was assembled to restore the neglected and vandalized Msida Bastion Cemetery. The Environment and Agriculture Ministries of the Malta Government and the British High Commission gave aid, but retired British residents did most of the heavy manual labour. The work was finally finished in 2000 when the site was opened to the public and re-named as a Garden of Repose.

Kalkara - Bighi Cemetery

Bighi Royal Naval Hospital had its own cemetery within its boundaries. A gravestone at Capuccini Cemetery says: 'This stone stands in memory of those originally interred in the cemetery of the Royal Naval Hospital, Bighi, in the years 1846 to 1901. Their names are forever recorded in a memorial book in the church of St. Oswald, Royal Naval Hospital, Malta.'

Kalkara - Capuccini (Naval) cemetery.

It is situated in the east of Malta, close to the Grand Harbour behind Kalkara. Among those buried here are 44 men from HMS Egmont, the Depot ship at Malta, and 22 who died when HMS Russell was sunk by a mine off Malta in April 1916. Most of the 694 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War are also in the Protestant section in a plot near the entrance, but there is another group in the Roman Catholic section. The rest are scattered. The Commission also cares for 1,445 non-war burials in the cemetery, and 137 war graves of other nationalities.

* A gravestone at Capuccini Cemetery says: 'Here buried are those members of the British Services and their families who died between 1865 and 1913 and were formerly interred in Rinella Military cemetery.'

* Another one states: 'This grave contains the remains of unknown persons originally interred at the old British Services Cemetery Floriana during the period 1801 - 1825' From the dates indicated, these persons were from the oldest part of the Floriana cemetery but there is neither any information when these remains were removed, nor the names. Different plaques outside denote the different nationalities buried here and in which war. These of course apart from British and some Maltese servicemen.

Kalkara - Rinella Cemetery

Located about halfway between Kalkara Naval Cemetery and Bighi Hospital, it was used by British Servicemen and their families from 1865 to 1916. In 1978 any remains were transferred into a Mass Grave at Kalkara Capuccini Naval Cemetery where a gravestone says: 'Here buried are those members of the British Services and their families who died between 1865 and 1913 and were formerly interred in Rinella Military cemetery.

Mtarfa - Military Cemetery

On a hill opposite Rabat and Mdina, it occupies part of a complex that belonged to the Military until the 1970's. It contains 15 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 238 from the Second World War. The Commission also cares for 1,203 non-war graves within the cemetery and one Dutch war grave.

Pembroke - Military Cemetery

Like Mtarfa, Pembroke area on the North side of Malta is now being developed into residential buildings. The cemetery here mostly contains graves from the garrison land force, which included locally raised territorial units especially from anti-aircraft artillery batteries which suffered particularly heavily. It also contains the Pembroke Memorial which commemorates more than 50 Second World War casualties buried elsewhere on Malta where their graves could not be maintained and more than 300 which were situated near barracks and camps.

Pieta - Military Cemetery

Situated in Gwardamanga on the way down to Pieta, it has 1,303 Commonwealth casualties of the First World War buried or commemorated in it, including 20 Indian servicemen who were cremated at Lazaretto Cemetery. The Commission also cares for 772 non-war graves in the cemetery and 15 war graves of other nationalities. This Cemetery was, historically, the island's principal garrison cemetery. It contains more than 150 Second World War burials, but these are vastly outnumbered by the 1,300 graves from the First World War.

GOZO

Ghajnsielem - Fort Chambray Military Cemeteries.

Three cemeteries were located in and around Fort Chambray, all from around 1800. A Protestant cemetery inside the Fort itself near the doctor's quarters, and two in the ditches outside, one for Roman Catholics on the left and one for Protestants on the right of the main entrance. In the early 1990's, permission to develop the Fort and area around it into a holiday complex was given and the cemetery inside the Fort was cleared of human remains in 1991. These were re-interred in individual graves in the Xewkija cemetery.