In Memory of
JOSEPH JOHN STARLING
Private SS/21195
29th (Labour) Coy., Army Service Corps
who died on
Thursday, 25th May 1916. Age 50.
Additional Information:
Son of Joseph and Ann Starling; husband of Emily Jane Starling, of 203, Farmer Rd.,
Leyton, London. Born at Bromley, Bow, London.
Commemorative Information
Cemetery:
SALONIKA (LEMBET ROAD) MILITARY CEMETERY, Greece
Grave Reference/
Panel Number:
134.
Location:
Thessalonika (Salonika) is a town at the head of the Gulf of Thessalonika. The Cemetery
is on the northern outskirts of Thessalonika, adjoining the Roman Catholic French and
Italian War Cemeteries. It lies on the west side of the road to Seres.
Historical Information:
Salonika (now Thessalonika) was occupied in October, 1915, at the invitation of M.
Venizelos, by three French Divisions and the 10th (Irish) Division from Gallipoli. Other
French and British forces landed-during the year, and in the summer of 1916 Russian and
Italian forces joined them. In August, 1916, a Greek Revolution broke out at Salonika,
with
the result that the Greek National Army came into the War on the Allied side; and these
contingents, with the reconstituted Serbian Army, formed the Salonika Army to which the
Bulgarians yielded in September, 1918. Salonika was the base of the British Salonika
Force, and it contained from time to time eighteen General and Stationary Hospitals (of
which three were Canadian, although there were no other Canadian units in the Force).
The earliest British burials took place in the local Protestant (or Anglo-German) and
Roman
Catholic Cemeteries. The British graves in the Roman Catholic Cemetery were moved into
the Military Cemetery after the Armistice; but the Protestant Cemetery still contains the
graves of soldiers, sailors of the Royal Fleet Reserve, Merchant Seaman, who died in
October or November, 1915. The Military Cemetery (formerly known as the Anglo-French
Military Cemetery) was begun in November, 1915, and British, French, Serbian, Italian and
Russian sections were formed. The British section remained in use until October, 1918,
although from the beginning of 1917 burials took place also in Mikra British Cemetery, on
the Western side of the town. After the Armistice, graves were concentrated into it from
other cemeteries in Macedonia and from Scala Cemetery, near Cassivita, on the island of
Thasos. In February and March, 1917, Salonika was the scene of two severe air raids.
Many of the graves just North of the Great Cross are those of men who were killed in the
raids; and grave space 1606 is marked with the name of one of these men, who is known
to have been buried in one of the unidentified graves.
Copyright The Commonwealth War Graves Commission