On Tuesday 10 February, I was grateful for the opportunity to meet members of the Royal British Legion Provence Monaco Branch, Mrs Elaine Baverstock (Chair) and Mr George Fortune (Deputy Chair), at the CWGC Mazargues War Cemetery in Marseille.
Together, we walked through this peaceful garden of remembrance on the southern edge of the city. We were thankful for a conversation with the cemetery gardener, M. AC, whose dedicated care preserves the dignity and quiet beauty of the site. A wreath was laid, prayers were offered, and wooden Remembrance crosses were placed on a number of graves.
Mazargues War Cemetery is a landscaped space of reflection — a little-known détour paisible for many Marseillais, set apart from the city’s turbulence. Yet for those who visit, it speaks eloquently of service, sacrifice and shared history.
The cemetery commemorates 1,487 casualties of the First World War. Although far from the main battlefields of northern France and Belgium, Marseille played a crucial role during the conflict. It was a principal point of arrival and departure for millions of troops, including Commonwealth units. The Royal Navy and Merchant Navy operated through the port, while British troops and labour corps — among them the Egyptian and Chinese Labour Corps — worked in or passed through the region. Camps across the area housed soldiers in transit, and hospitals and military bases were established on the outskirts of the city.
After the war, the bodies and ashes of servicemen who had died in Marseille and had originally been buried in four different city cemeteries were brought together at Mazargues. Among those commemorated are almost a thousand soldiers or labourers from India, alongside men from China, Egypt, Fiji and the British West Indies, as well as from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa — a powerful testament to the global dimension of the conflict.
Mazargues is also the resting place of 267 Second World War casualties. The last to be buried here were 26 servicemen who, having survived Japanese internment camps, were being flown home in January 1946 when their aircraft crashed. Even after the guns had fallen silent, the cost of war continued to be felt.
After our time in the cemetery, we spoke about the organisation of Remembrance Sunday in Marseille — in recent years arranged in collaboration with Le Souvenir Français — and about how best to raise awareness across our chaplaincy of the Royal British Legion’s presence and activities. We also discussed ways of encouraging membership and, importantly, of fostering greater interest among younger generations in the history of Mazargues and the stories it holds.
Our hope is that, through continued partnership, visibility and education, this place of remembrance will remain alive not only in stone, but in memory.
The Revd Roxana Tenea Teleman
Assistant Chaplain
All Saints’ Church, Marseille