Record

Code	DS/UK/78
Dates	1896-1975
Person Name	Vale; Croxton Sillery (1896-1975); Brigadier; diplomat, Director of Graves Registration and Enquiries, Regional Director (Northern Region)
Surname	Vale
Forenames	Croxton Sillery
Title	Brigadier
Epithet	diplomat, Director of Graves Registration and Enquiries, Regional Director (Northern Region)
Source	CWGC Archive, CWGC/1/2/H/11, Brigadier C.S. Vale; CWGC Archive, CWGC/2/2/1/454, COMMISSION MEETING NO. 454, 16/11/1961; CWGC Archive, ADD 10/1/51, NEW YEAR HONOURS - 1960
Biographical Note	Brigadier Croxton Sillery Vale CMG CBE MC was the Commission’s Regional Director for Northern Region after the Second World War. Croxton Sillery Vale was born on 23 February 1896. He was educated at Brighton College between 1906 and 1913. In October 1914, during the First World War, Vale was commissioned in the Royal Army Service Corps and served in France and later, in North Russia. From 1929 to 1930, Vale attended the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and later Staff College, Camberley. Between 1937 and 1940, he was Military Attaché to Estonia. In 1942, Vale was appointed Deputy Director of Military Intelligence at the War Office before becoming Fortress Commander of Gibraltar in 1944. He was awarded the CBE in 1946. Brigadier Vale was Director of Graves Registration and Enquiries at the War Office in 1947. In October 1948, Vale was appointed as Chief Administrative Officer for the Commission’s French District. He was then Regional Director for Northern Region, where he directed the work of the Commission throughout several countries in northern and western Europe. Vale played an instrumental role in negotiating the Commonwealth-France War Graves Agreement of 1951, as well as overseeing the construction and horticultural layout in over seventy cemeteries of the Second World War and the Bayeux and Dunkirk Memorials to the Missing. Vale was also responsible for coordinating the repair and rehabilitation of several 1914-1918 war cemeteries that had suffered damage or neglect as a result of the Second World War. He was appointed a member of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George in 1960 and his recommendation noted his personal role in arranging the unveiling ceremonies for the Bayeux and Dunkirk Memorials to the Missing. Brigadier Vale retired from the Commission in 1961. He died on 1 November 1975 in Brighton, Sussex, aged 79.
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