In Memory of
Albert George Starling
Gunner
1533596
16 Bty., 2 H.A.A. Regt., Royal Artillery
who died on
Friday, 26th April 1941. Age 21.
Additional Information:
Son of George and Ada Starling.
Commemorative Information
Memorial:
ATHENS MEMORIAL,
Grave Reference/
Panel Number:
Face 3.
Location:
The Athens Memorial stands within Phaleron War Cemetery, which lies a few
kilometres to the South-East of Athens, at the boundary between Old Phaleron
District and Kalamaki district. It is on the coast road from Athens to Vouliaghmen,
5 kilometres west of the international airport.
The Memorial is built of Pentelicon marble, similar to that used in the Parthenon. A
rectangular shelter or tempietto leads through square-headed openings on to an
oblong paved terrace from which rise eight large pillars, four on each side, bearing
the names. At the far end a short flight of steps leads up to the Stone of
Remembrance.
Athens Memorial commemorates nearly 3,000 members of the land forces of the
British Commonwealth and Empire who lost their lives during the campaigns in
Greece and Crete in 1941 and 1944-1945, in the Dodecanese Islands in 1943-1945
and in Yugoslavia in 1943-1945, and who have no known grave.
Within the tempietto, on a shelf of black marble, is the box containing the register
of names, facing a curved seat of green Tinos marble. These colours are repeated
on the margins on the paved floor. Above the register box, in English, and above
the seat, in modern Greek, is the dedicatory inscription which reads:
1939 - 1945 "WITHIN THIS CEMETERY STAND MONUMENTS BEARING THE NAMES
OF THE SOLDIERS OF THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AND EMPIRE WHO GAVE
THEIR LIVES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR THE DEFENCE OF GREECE AND CRETE IN 1941
AND IN LATER OPERATIONS IN GREECE, THE DODECANESE AND YUGOSLAVIA, BUT
TO WHOM THE FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED A KNOWN AND HONOURED GRAVE".
Over the openings, in Ancient Greek at the South and in English at the North, is
the text:
"WE, WHO TO CLOTHE HELLAS IN FREEDOM FOUGHT, LIE HERE AT REST IN PRAISE
THAT FADETH NOT".
The members of the Commonwealth Air Forces, Navies and Mercantile Marine who
lost their lives in the campaigns in Greece, Crete, Yugoslavia and the Dodecanese,
and who have no known grave, are commemorated elsewhere.
The missing of the Air Forces are commemorated by name on memorials at El
Alamein in Egypt, and Malta; those of the Navies on memorials at their manning
ports and those of the Mercantile Marine on the Tower Hill Memorial, London.
Copyright The Commonwealth War Graves Commission