In Memory of
George Starling
Lance Corporal
9355
2nd Bn., The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment
who died on
Wednesday, 4th November 1914.
Commemorative Information
Cemetery:
TANGA MEMORIAL CEMETERY,
Location:
Tanga is on the coast of Tanzania, 56 kilometres south of the border with Kenya. Tanga
Memorial Cemetery is south-west of the town, and contains the burials of British and
Indian
soldiers. A single track railway line within 50 metres of the cemetery may aid visitors as
a
reference point, and the cemetery is surrounded on three sides by buildings (one of which
has remained half built for many years). Visitors are advised to seek the key for the
cemetery from the Tanga Municipal offices.
The Tanga (Jasin) Memorial is located to the rear boundary of the cemetery and takes the
form of a screen wall with inscribed panels
CWGC signposts are being produced which, it is hoped, will be in place by March 1998.
Historical Information:
MEMORIAL INDEX NUMBER 47.
TANGA, the capital of the Province of Tanga, is an important town and seaport on the coast
of Tanganyika, 35 miles South of the border of Kenya,
and the terminus of a railway built by the Germans. It was the object of a British attack
in
November, 1914, and Tanga Memorial Cemetery, which is outside the town on the
South-West side, contains the bodies of British and Indian soldiers who fell in that
engagement.
The Indian Expeditionary Force "B" arrived on the coast of German East Africa on
the 1st
November, 1914, and on the next morning they summoned the Port of Tanga to surrender.
They attacked it on the following night, but the German garrison, hastily reinforced,
compelled them to retire. The renewed attack on the 4th November was unsuccessful, and
the force was re-embarked with 800 casualties. The 2nd Loyal North Lancashire Regiment,
the 13th Rajputs, the 61st King George's Own Pioneers, the 63rd Palamcottah Light
Infantry,
the 98th Infantry and the 101st Grenadiers sustained most of the casualties; the 2nd and
3rd Kashmir Rifles and the Gwalior (Imperial Service) Infantry also took part in the
operations.
Tanga was occupied by a British force almost without opposition on the 7th July, 1916, and
the bodies of 270 officers and men who had fallen in the earlier attack were found buried
in
various places and were reburied in this Cemetery. It was not possible to identify the
bodies, and the graves are therefore recorded as those of 270 unidentified British and
Indian
soldiers. It is known,
however, that these unidentified soldiers are among the 64 British and 330 Indian officers
and men who fell in the attack and whose graves are not known, and these 394 names are
engraved on a screen wall in the Cemetery.
The Cemetery was fenced and provided with a lych gate in 1916, and a stone pyramid was
raised in the middle of it. The lych gate has been repaired, the stone pyramid replaced,
and
a low stone wall built round the Cemetery. The cost of construction was defrayed partly by
the capital of the original Tanga Memorial Fund, which was raised by the troops.
The Register records particulars of 394 dead, of whom 48 belonged to the Loyal North
Lancashire Regiment and two to other United Kingdom units, 14 were British officers of the
Indian Army, and 330 belonged to the Indian Ranks of the Indian Army.
The Jasin Memorial, which occupies part of the screen wall, is the subject of a separate
Register.
Copyright The Commonwealth War Graves Commission