VISIT TO WAR MEMORIAL

Press, Volume C, Issue 29499, 28 April 1961, Page 22

VISIT TO WAR MEMORIAL

Wreath Laid By Queen Mother ( N .Z .P .A .-Reuter —Copyright) MEDJEZ EL BAB (Tunisia), April 26. The Queen Mother today laid a wreath of pink carnations and red roses before the cross of sacrifice in the Commonwealth war cemetery at Medjez el Bab. The wreath bore a card on which she had written. “In Remembrance, Elizabeth R.” The cemetery, the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in Tunisia, lies at the roadside near a former Roman settlement. It is about 36 miles west of Tunis. The cross of sacrifice is part of a memorial to almost 2000 Commonwealth soldiers who died in World War II fighting in Tunisia and who have no known graves. The cemetery itself holds nearly 3000 graves. The Queen Mother’s drive to the cemetery took her past another Commonwealth cemetery, at Massicault, past a German war cemetery with the rusting remains of a tank and a Roman aqueduct. Villagers had put up an arch across the road with a banner reading in English and Arabic: “Medjez remembers the English soldiers.” All the village turned.out to welcome the Queen Mother. Fireworks boomed out tn salute as she reached the village

After laying the wreath the Queen Mother spent a few minutes studying the names carved in the walls of two pergolas by the cross of sacrifice