Her father's Gaza war grave was bulldozed; she wants answers

Wilma Spence says the inscription on her father’s tombstone — "Fighting for those who love him, our darling daddy died" — has almost certainly been erased after the Israel Defense Forces bulldozed large parts of the Gaza War Cemetery. She has had no official word and now has no idea where Albert Kemp’s remains are.

Satellite imagery shows heavy disturbance in the southern corner of the cemetery, where the graves of hundreds of Commonwealth war dead, including many Australians, are located. Albert Kemp enlisted in Dandenong in October 1939, served with the 2/7 Battalion and was awarded campaign medals including the Africa Star and the 1939–45 Star before his death in Palestine in 1941 at age 27.

Wilma, who was too young to know him, traced his service across Crete and the Middle East and visited his grave in 1995. She recalls finding Grave 3, Row A, Section B alone in the cemetery, breaking down when she saw the tombstone.

Palestine, Gaza