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Royal Engineer Veterans
The most distinguished veteran military officer buried in this cemetery is Sir John Eugene Clauson.
He was a Knight Commander, Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG), and a Commander, Royal
Victorian Order (CVO). He had served as a Major in the Royal Engineers, later on as Lieutenant Governor
and Chief Secretary of Malta, and finally as His Majesty’s High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief
in Cyprus during the whole of the First World War.He died in service at Government House just after
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the war ended, on 31 December 1918.
The grave of Sir John Eugene Clauson, KCMG, CVO
High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief Cyprus 1914 – 1918
Philip Oliver George Wakeham
There is one other grave in this cemetery of a Royal Engineer veteran, ,
born 15 May 1906, died 16 December 1982. His military connection is marked by a bronze plaque with
the Royal Engineers crest on his headstone.
6 Major Sir John Eugene Clauson was Lieutenant-Governor and Chief Secretary of Malta from 1911 – 1914. The following
announcement then appeared in The Edinburgh Gazette on 22 December 1914, page 1557: DOWNING STREET, December
16, 1914: ‘The KING has been pleased to appoint Major Sir John Eugene Clauson, K.C.M.G., C.V.O. (Lieutenant-Governor and
Chief Secretary of Malta), to be High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief of the Island of Cyprus.’ www.edinburgh-gazette.
co.uk/issues/12753/pages/1557/page.pdf . A photograph of him is shown in: Abela, Albert (1991), Governors of Malta, (Malta:
Progress Press), p. 135.
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