transfer of sovereignty to Greece upon ratification. Thus, on 21 May, by proclamation of the Lord High Commissioner, the Ionian Islands were united with Greece. British Lord High Commissioners during the protectorate This is a list of the British High Commissioners of the Ionian Islands; (as well as the transitional Greek Governor, appointed a year prior to Enosis (Union) with Greece in 1864). Sir James Campbell 1814–1816 Sir Thomas Maitland (1759–1824) 1815–1823 Sir Frederick Adam (1781–1853) 1823–1832 Sir Alexander Woodford (1782–1870) 1832 George Nugent-Grenville, 2nd Baron Nugent (1788–1850) 1832–1835 Howard Douglas (1776–1861) 1835–1840 James Alexander Stewart-Mackenzie (1784–1843) 1840–1843 John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton (1778–1863) 1843–1849 Sir Henry George Ward (1797–1860) 1849–1855 Sir John Young (1807–1876) 1855–1859 William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) 1859 Sir Henry Knight Storks (1811–1874) 1859–1863 Count Dimitrios Nikolaou Karousos, President of the Ionian Parliament (1799–1873) 1863–1864 First World War During the First World War, the island served as a refuge for the Serbian army that retreated there on Allied forces' ships from a homeland occupied by the Austrians, Germans and Bulgarians. During their stay, a large portion of Serbian soldiers died from exhaustion, food shortage, and various diseases. Most of their remains were buried at sea near the island of Vido, a small island at the mouth of Corfu port, and a monument of thanks to the Greek nation has been erected at Vido by the grateful Serbs; consequently, the waters around Vido Island are known by the Serbian people as the Blue Tomb (in Serbian, Плава Гробница, Plava Grobnica), after a poem written by Milutin Bojić following World War I. Interwar period In 1923, after a diplomatic dispute between Italy and Greece, Italian forces bombarded and occupied Corfu. The League of Nations settled this Corfu incident in Italy's favour. Second World War Italian occupation and resistance During the Greco-Italian War, Corfu was occupied by the Italians in April 1941. They administered Corfu and the Ionian islands as a separate entity from Greece until September 1943, following Benito Mussolini's orders of fulfilling Italian Irredentism and making Corfu part of the Kingdom of Italy. During the Second World War the 10th infantry regiment of the Greek Army, composed mainly of Corfiot soldiers, was assigned the task of defending Corfu. The regiment took part in Operation Latzides, which was a heroic but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to stem the forces of the Italians. After Greece's surrender to the Axis, the island