In 1956, a young man in Suez thought he had struck it lucky when his friend gave him an air ticket, which he had won in a raffle, to travel back to the UK where the man’s mother was quite ill.

But A. Smith was killed, along with 49 others, when the Scottish plane Avro York crashed in fields outside Żurrieq, near the Blue Grotto, after a stopover in Malta.

With him were 12 Royal Air Force personnel who had won their tickets in a “lucky draw” at their station near the Suez Canal.

They too perished in one of Malta’s worst air disasters and their bodies were buried in the Mtarfa military cemetery.

And this is just one of the many stories that will be recounted for the rest of the week during free tours of the cemetery as part of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s annual global awareness week, taking place in Malta for the first time.

The event is aimed at encouraging people to discover the heritage of the world wars on their doorstep.

Starting today, three dedicated volunteers – Lino Camilleri, Jean Attard and Elaine Zerafa – will tell stories about the ordinary people buried in Mtarfa who “gave their today for our tomorrow”.

The commission is responsible for the commemoration of nearly 1.7 million members of the Commonwealth forces.

The graves of these men and women are to be found in 153 countries and regions while the commission also takes care of nearly 4,000 non-war graves.

An endless stream of stories

‘War Graves Week’ events will be held in the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and, for the first time ever, in Malta at the Mtarfa cemetery.

The cemetery can provide an endless stream of stories.

Some of them date back to World War I when Malta earned the title ‘Nurse of the Mediterranean’, providing medical treatment to over 130,000 servicemen from the fighting in Gallipoli, Salonika and the Middle East.

Years later, the island would play a different role, becoming an island fortress, besieged by German and Italian forces and becoming one of the most heavily bombed places on earth in   World War II.

Many of the military personnel who died during both wars are buried at military cemeteries such as the one in Mtarfa.

Located just a four-minute drive from the former Mtarfa military hospital, the cemetery is tucked away in a quiet side street and is a harmoniously peaceful place, with the silence only broken by birds chirping in the trees surrounding the graveyard.

One of the first burials dates back to the 1800s.

Robert Fenton was a drummer in the Lancaster regiment. He was just 16.

“We think he died from an illness but it’s hard to say as we have no access to medical records,” Zerafa said yesterday.

Some of the headstones have visible bomb damage because the graveyard lay so close to then RAF airfield in Ta’ Qali.

“Aircraft would fly over Mtarfa and Mdina, strafing on the way to the airfield and this is the damage left.”

Among the many others buried in Mtarfa are six members of then British prime minister Winston Churchill’s delegation, who were killed in a plane crash while on the way to the historical 1945 Yalta Conference, in Crimea, on February 1, 1945.

The plane circled Lampedusa for over an hour before it crashed in the sea around that tiny island and it is recorded there was some confusion about whether they were in Malta or not.

Sometimes, the cemetery is at the centre of a special trip to Malta.

“Every day, we meet new people and hear new stories about the people buried here,” Zerafa told Times of Malta.

“Just last week, an 80-year-old woman came to visit the grave of her sister who died at just eight weeks old. We sat her down and took photos of her next to her sister’s grave  and she was accompanied by her own daughter, who got to hear stories of her family and meet her aunt.”

Sometimes, people come to the cemetery with picnic blankets, to sit by the side of their loved ones’ tombstones, sometimes for hours.

Mtarfa holds the body of one colonel, Hugh Alexander Pollock. He died in 1971.

“While his headstone reads ‘in loving memory of his wife Ida’, Pollock was the first husband of the famous British children’s author Enid Blyton. We all grew up reading her stories,” Camilleri said.

The volunteers highlighted the importance of the younger generations learning and understanding the importance of the stories from Mtarfa. 

“These people sacrificed so much, their lives, for the freedom we get to experience today. Their stories should not be forgotten or taken for granted,” Camilleri added.

Visitors are fascinated by the site

“When people come here to take a peak, when our volunteers start speaking to them and telling them the stories, they end up staying for an hour or two,” Country Supervisor for Malta with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Mark Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald was awarded an Honorary MBE for his service to the Commonwealth War Graves. 

While he started working for the CWGC back in 1993 as a gardener at the Pieta Military Cemetery, his connections to the Commission date back another two generations. Both his own grandfather and father worked for the CWGC, and it only felt fitting for Fitzgerald to continue their legacy. 

He recalled spending his childhood at the military cemetery, which he described to be his "playground" growing up. 

"Cemeteries can be seen as a bit boring, but when people come into our site, they end up staying hours. It's amazing how interested they would be, and they would want to know more and more about the stories and Malta's history."

For more information on the 'War Graves week' tours visit: https://www.cwgc.org/our-war-graves-your-history/war-graves-week/war-graves-week-2022-event-list/