At 11 o’clock this morning—Armistice Day—clergy of the Diocese, the Church of North India, and the Church of South India joined serving members of the Royal Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy for a moving service of remembrance led by Bishop Sean at St Martin’s graveyard—site of the former cemetery of the British Royal Air Force Station Sharjah, and the graves of 12 service personnel who died on peacetime operations in the 1960s. 

The RAF base, once a landing strip for BA-predecessor Imperial Airways, became RAF Sharjah during the Second World War. The RAF left in 1971 and, over the years, the graveyard was effectively forgotten—until former RAF officer Frank Wright visited in 2008 to lay a wreath at the grave of a colleague he had served with some 40 years earlier. Thanks to his determination, the graveyard was subsequently partially restored—bolstered more recently by the concerted efforts of St Martin’s, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the British Embassy and military to undertake a comprehensive and thoughtful renovation.

Once surrounded by desert, the cemetery is now very much part of the city of Sharjah. Yet it remains a peaceful place, graves shaded by neem and palm trees caringly maintained by the parish of St Martin’s—and a fitting final resting place for the fallen.