Francis Humphrey John Greswolde-Williams

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Lieutenant
F H J Greswolde-Williams

Regiment & Unit/Ship
Special List

Date of Death
Died 03 August 1917

Buried or commemorated at
DAR ES SALAAM WAR CEMETERY
6. J. 18.
Tanzania

Secondary Unit, Regiment attd.
3rd/2nd Bn. King's African Rifles

Country of Service
United Kingdom




Local Memorial History

  Francis Humphrey John Greswolde-Williams, is
remembered by a plaque in one of the windows in the
cloisters, at Worcester Cathedral.

Lieutenant Francis Humphrey John Greswolde-Williams.
Name: F. H. J. Greswolde-Williams
Event: Type Burial
Death Date: 03 Aug, 1917.
Country of death: East Africa.
Town of death: Pandamugi Dill Lindi.
Burial: Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
Plot: 6. J. 18.
Affiliate Record Identifier: 22732039
Cemetery: Dar es Salaam War. Cemetery: (WMR 52098)
   
A memorial window to Francis Humphrey John
Greswolde-Williams, as seen here, was originally at,
St. Mary the Virgin, Knightwick.

This window has the following inscriptions:

To the Glory of God, and in loving memory of
Francis Humphrey John Greswolde Williams.
Killed in action in German, East Africa,
3rd August 1917, in his 18th year.

You can still view this window at Knightwick
St Mary and St. Andrew's Mortuary Chapel,
where it was taken after the sale of St Mary's
Church.
   
Also a family plaque at St. Mary Magdalene,
Broadwas has a commemoration to,
Francis Humphrey John Greswolde-Williams.


DAR ES SALAAM WAR CEMETERY

 


   
At the outbreak of the First World War Tanzania was the core of German East Africa. From the invasion of April 1915,
Commonwealth forces fought a protracted and difficult campaign against a relatively small but highly skilled German
force under the command of General von Lettow-Vorbeck. When the Germans finally surrendered on 23 November 1918,
twelve days after the European armistice, their numbers had been reduced to 155 European and 1,168 African troops.

Dar es Salaam was the capital of German East Africa. On 8 August 1914, the first recorded British action of the war took
place here, when HMS Astraea shelled the German wireless station and boarded and disabled two merchant
ships - the "Konig" and the "Feldmarschall".

The Royal Navy systematically shelled the city from mid August 1916, and at 8 am on 4 September the deputy
burgomaster was received aboard H.M.S. "Echo" to accept the terms of surrender. Troops, headed by the 129th
Baluchis, then entered the city.

On 12 September 1916, Divisional GHQ moved to Dar es Salaam, and later No.3 East African Stationary Hospital was
stationed there. The town became the chief sea base for movement of supplies and for the evacuation of the sick and
wounded.

During the Second World War, Tanzania saw the creation of several transit camps within its borders for Commonwealth
forces moving to and from the Middle East and India.

DAR ES SALAAM WAR CEMETERY was created in 1968 when the 660 First World War graves at Dar es Salaam (Ocean
Road) Cemetery had to be moved to facilitate the construction of a new road. As the burials in the three former plots
had not been marked individually, they were reburied in collective graves, each marked by a screen wall memorial.
(Memorial Gardens "B", "C" and "D"). During the early 1970s, a further 1,000 graves were brought into this site from
cemeteries all over Tanzania, where maintenance could no longer be assured.

Dar es Salaam War Cemetery now contains 1,764 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 60 of them unidentified,
and 41 from the Second World War, 7 of them unidentified. The 112 war graves of other nationalities, the majority of
them Belgian and German, all date from the First World War.

The cemetery also contains the DAR ES SALAAM HINDU CREMATION MEMORIAL which commemorates 14 Indian
servicemen whose remains were cremated in accordance with their faith.

The DAR ES SALAAM BRITISH AND INDIAN MEMORIAL which stands within Dar es Salaam War Cemetery, commemorates
by name more than 1,500 officers and men who died in East Africa during and after January 1917 (the advance to the
Rufiji river) who have no known grave. The memorial was moved from a site elsewhere in the township and re-sited in
Memorial Garden A. The earlier casualties are commemorated by a similar memorial at Nairobi, Kenya.Awards Mentioned
in Despatches
 


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