15 Apr 2003                   


         Husband: William R CENTER    
            Died: 28 Apr 1916          in Dardanelles  1
          Buried:                      in Plot 43 Malta Naval Cemetery  2,3
          Father:
          Mother:


            Wife: Zoe CENTER     died at age: 86 
            Born: 9 Apr 1878           daughter of Staffordshire vicar  
            Died: 16 Apr 1964          in Ealing  4
          Buried: Apr 1964             in Stone Staffs  5
          Father:
          Mother:

Sources:
(1) DK, 'William Center, a surgeon, had served on board the battleship Russell in 
the heavily mined Dardanelles.....Before dawn on 27 April 1916, HMS Russell 
struck two mines, caught fire and sank.  Center died from burns and gas 
poisoning from flaming cordite.', 31. 
(2) Commonwealth War Graves Commission, (www.cwgc.org), In Memory of 
W R CENTER  
Fleet Surgeon 
H.M.S. Russell., Royal Navy 
who died on 
Friday, 28th April 1916.  
Commemorative Information
Cemetery: MALTA (CAPUCCINI) NAVAL CEMETERY, 
Malta 
Grave Reference/Panel Number: Prot. 43. 
Location: 	The Cemetery is about 2 kilometres south-east of Rinella, a bay and 
hamlet opposite Valletta across the mouth of the Grand Harbour and on the 
southern outskirts of the village of Kalkara. Just before entering Kalkara on 
the main bus route, the Cemetery is signposted along the road "Triq Santa 
Liberta" to the street of Triq Santu Rokku" where the Cemetery is 
located. 
Historical Information:  This cemetery, which once belonged to the Admiralty, 
is close to a Capuchin monastery from which it takes its name. It is two 
sections; Protestant and Roman Catholic. There is a triangular 1914-1918 War 
plot in the Protestant section in which stands a granite Cross of Sacrifice 
which was erected after that war. Most of the 1939-1945 War graves, too, are in 
the Protestant Section, in a plot near the entrance, and there is another group 
in the Roman Catholic section; but there are a few others in scattered positions 
in this burial ground. There are now 351 Commonwealth burials of the 1914-18 
war, 5 of which are unidentified, and there are 694 burials of the 1939-1945 war 
commemorated in this site. In addition there are 137 Foreign National burials, 
including 2 unidentified Italians, and a further 1,444 non world war burials.
. 
(3) DK, 'The two [Charles Russ and Zoe Center] chose to honeymoon in Malta, where 
they went to pay their respects to the departed William Center at plot 43 in the 
Malta Naval Cemetery, across the Grand Harbour from Valletta', 31. 
(4) DK, '[1964] in April of that year.... Zoe Russ had died a week after her 
eighty-sixth birthday, at a hospital in Ealing, and Patrick went to England to 
attend the funeral.  He rode on the train with family members to Stafford, and 
then travelled on to the village of Stone for the service.  Drifts of daffodils 
covered the countryside between Stafford and the churchyard where Zoe was 
buried.   Showing no favouritism, she had left them each £50, including Patrick, 
the favourite son who had changed his name, Joan, who had married beneath 
herself, and Joan's daughter Frances, who was Zoe's goddaughter'', 197. 
(5) DK, 197.