| Content Note | Topics covered:
Death of Sir Thomas White
Reporting of the death of Sir Thomas White, former High Commissioner for Australia in London.
Report of the 451st Meeting of the Finance Committee
Discussion about the accounts of the Commission for the year ended 31st March 1957 and maintenance of four cemeteries in France under special contract with Entreprise Reynes.
Excess expenditure relating to the construction of Kranji War Cemetery and Memorial at Singapore.
Purchase of office machinery to be used for the preparation of the final records of Second World War dead.
Appointment of two Horticultural Superintendents as permanent members of staff.
38th Annual Report and Accounts of the Commission
Discussion concerning the draft of the 38th Annual Report, including suggestion by Sir Arthur Rucker to amend the Report’s layout to increase its appeal and proposal by Sir Patrick Spens that details of the work being carried out by the Commission in distant parts of the world be added in an appendix.
Membership of Joint Committees
Appointment of Marchese Livio Theodoli, Minister of Plenipotentiary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Dr Ferruccio Cattaneo, Directot of Department, Ministry of Finance, and retirement of Dr. Remigio Grillo and Colonel Salvatore Talotta as Official Members of the Commonwealth-Italian Joint Committee; appointment of Mr H. L. B. Coe, MBE, British Consul at Baghdad, and retirement of Mr E. P. Wiltshire as Member of the Commonwealth-Iraq Committee.
Office Premises Overseas – Leases and Tenancy Agreements
Authorisation for Regional Directors, or another senior Commission official, to complete a lease or tenancy agreement or document of similar purport; authority in the French and North West European Regions placed under the control of the Northern Region.
Agreement for the Commission’s Eastern Area, United Kingdom Region, to occupy the office premises at the Government Offices, Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge, completed by Joseph Francis Flynn, Superintendent, Eastern Area, UK Region; endorsement by Charles Merkins, Acting Superintendent, United Kingdom Region, for the existing Lease of the Commission’s office premises for the at 37, Oxford Street, Harrogate, Yorkshire.
Report of the 30th Annual Meeting of the South African Agency
Summary of the proceedings at the Annual Meeting of the South African Agency, attended by Mr Rood, Director of Public Works, Mr Meyer, Secretary to the Treasury, and the Quartermaster-General, including report that all headstones had been erected and only four cemeteries in Cape Province remained to be constructed.
Maintenance of War Graves in the United Kingdom - 60th Quarterly Report to 30th September 1957
Account of visit by Dutch pilgrims to the Runnymede Memorial; departure of Colonel Griffin, Regional Director, Southern Region, who was set to assume the role of Regional Director, Southern Region.
General Notes
Account of unveiling ceremony and erection of the Cross of Sacrifice at Beechmount Cemetery, Edmonton; plans for three Commission gardeners from the French and North-West European Regions to lay a wreath at a service at St. George’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey; announcement regarding the Remembrance Day broadcast scheduled on the BBC on 10th November 1957; details of the unveiling ceremony for the Medjez-el-Bab Memorial, which was to be unveiled by General Sir Kenneth Anderson, Commander of the First Army in North Africa, on 16th November 1957; details of the inauguration of the Delhi Memorial and Karachi Memorial, which was to be carried out by the Presidents of India and Pakistan and arranged by Brigadier Perry, Regional Director.
ATTENDEES:
General Sir John Crocker GCB KBE DSO MC (Vice-Chairman of the Commission)
C. E. Cox (Representing the High Commissioner for Canada)
E. A. Broadridge (Representing the High Commissioner for New Zealand)
F. W. Thomashoff (Representing the High Commissioner for South Africa)
Lieutenant-Colonel M. M. Singh (Representing the High Commissioner for India)
Captain S. M. Akhtar (Representing the High Commissioner for Pakistan)
S. H. Field (Representing the Secretary of State for the Colonies)
A. J. Isaac (Representing the Minister of Works)
The Right Hon. Sir Patrick Spens KBE GC MP
Captain Sir Harold Campbell GCVO DSO RN
Sir Arthur Rucker KCMG CB CBE
Admiral Sir John Edelsten GCB GCVO CBE
Air Marshal Sir Charles Guest KBE CB
SECRETARY
W. J. Chalmers CBE
ADVISERS
Sir Edward Maufe RA FRIBA (Chief Architect and Artistic Adviser)
Also in attendance:
W. Wynne Mason MC (Assistant Secretary (External Relations)
A. K. Pallot (Assistant Secretary (Finance and Establishments))
Brigadier N. E. V. Patterson OBE (Principal Deputy Director of Works)
H. L. Simmons LLB (Legal Adviser)
W. F. W. Harding BSc (Chief Horticultural Officer)
Colonel E. A. Griffin OBE ED (Regional Director, United Kingdom Region)
A. S. Laing
R. I. Mill |