IMPERIAL WAR GRAVES COMMISSION SECRETARY ARRIVES IN AUCKLAND

Wanganui Chronicle, 22 November 1950, Page 6

IMPERIAL WAR GRAVES COMMISSION SECRETARY ARRIVES IN AUCKLAND

AUCKLAND, Last Night (PA).— Brigad.er F. A. Higginson, secretary of the Imperial War Graves Commission, arrived at Auckland by the Aorangi tonight. He is making a tour nf Commonwealth countries to report to the Governments and explain to the public the work of the Commission in maintaining cemeteries under its control Work had just started on the formation of a memorial at the large cemetery at El Alamein in the Western Desert, said Brigadier Higginson. The memorial would be built in the form of a cloister and would contain the names of all soldiers killed in fighting in the Western Desert campaigns. whose graves were not known. Bougainvillea would be grown on the •'crgola of the cloister and it was toped to extend the floral treatment of the memorial to planting a desert grass around the plots. Other cemeteries were being laid out in the Western Desert at Solium, Tobruk. Acroma and Benghazi. Cemeteries were being planned at Phaleron, near Athens, end Suvla Bay. Crete. Brigadier Higginson will give a series of six lectures illustrated with a coloured film of war cemeteries in Europe and Africa, while in New Zealand. He has been secretarv of the Commission since 1947. He joined It in ISIS, when he was seconded from the Royal Montreal Regiment. He is accctnpanied by his wife.