In Memory of
Charles Starling
Private
4857759
2nd Bn., Leicestershire Regiment
who died on
Thursday, 3rd March 1944. Age 30.
Additional Information:
Son of Henry and Dora Starling; husband of Doris Starling, of Ismailia, Egypt.
Commemorative Information
Cemetery:
HELIOPOLIS WAR CEMETERY,
Grave Reference/
Panel Number:
4. E. 6.
Location:
Heliopolis, a major suburb of Cairo, lies 10 kilometres to the north-east of the main city
centre,
approximately 6 kilometres from the airport.
Heliopolis War Cemetery is situated opposite El Banat (Girls') College in Nabil el Wakkard
Street,
and access to the cemetery is from this street.
On the rear boundary of Heliopolis War Cemetery will be found the Heliopolis (Aden)
Memorial,
commemorating the Aden Field Force and sailors and soldiers who fell in the defence of
Aden in
the 1914-1918 War, and who have no known grave.
Also within Heliopolis War Cemetery, on panels erected in the entrance pavilion, is the
Heliopolis
(Port Tewfik) Memorial commemorating the Indian dead of the Great War in Egypt and
Palestine.
Historical Information:
When the 1914-1918 War broke out, Cairo was the headquarters of the British garrison in
Egypt,
and the principal military hospital was in the Citadel. The city became a main hospital
centre for
Gallipoli in 1915, and throughout the war dealt with sick and wounded from the army in
Egypt and
later in Palestine.
General Headquarters, Middle East Command, set up in Cairo shortly before the 1939-1945
War,
remained there all through the war years; and in January 1941 the Royal Air Force Sector
Headquarters for Fighter Defence Canal Zone was set up. The Second World War saw Cairo
again a
hospital centre. A very large number of nationalities were represented in the Middle East
Command. All had their own standards and required as far as possible to be tended in their
own
hospitals, by medical staffs speaking their languages. The Command included labour units
recruited in the countries in which British forces were operating - Palestine, Syria, Iraq
and Persia
(now Iran); from colonies such as Mauritius and the Seychelles; from Malta and Cyprus,
from
Basutoland and Bechuanaland; and from East and West Africa. Troops from the Dominions and
India, and those of the allies - Poles, Free French, Czechs and others - all had to be
provided for
separately. Cairo was also a leave centre, and many soldiers' clubs and hostels were
created to
supplement the entertainment resources of the city and to provide cheap accommodation.
Heliopolis War Cemetery was opened in October 1941, and took casualties from the many
hospitals established in the Western Desert campaigns. After the war 125 Moslem graves
were
moved to it from Mena Camp Military Cemetery, which was so situated that permanent
maintenance was not possible.
Copyright The Commonwealth War Graves Commission