Commonwealth War Graves CommissionA HISTORY OF THE

The Commission's founder, Fabian Ware, arrived inFrance in September 1914 to command a BritishRed Cross Unit. He noted there was noorganisation in place to record the final restingplaces of casualties and became concerned thatgraves would be lost forever, so his unit took itupon themselves to register and care for all thegraves they could find. By 1915 Ware's unit wasgiven official recognition by the War Office,becoming the Graves Registration Commission.The Unit received hundreds of requests fromrelatives for information or photographs of lovedones' graves - by 1917, 12,000 photographs hadbeen dispatched to relatives.

As the war progressed, Ware, concerned aboutthe fate of the graves once the war was over,became convinced of the need for an officialorganisation representing the Imperial nature ofthe war effort, the equality of treatment due to thedead and the permanence of graves or memorials.With the support of The Prince of Wales, Waresubmitted a memorandum to the Imperial WarConference in 1917. It was unanimously approvedand The Imperial War Graves Commission wasestablished by Royal Charter on 21 May 1917.

From the outset, the Commission soughtperfection and permanence for the physical formsof commemoration and settled on three of themost eminent architects of the day to begin thework of design and construction of the cemeteriesand memorials - Sir Edwin Lutyens, Sir HerbertBaker and Sir Reginald Blomfield.

Immediately, challenges arose over the type, size,and cost of the cemeteries and memorials theCommission was to build. Sir Frederic Kenyon,Director of the British Museum, had the task ofbringing together the differing views. His report,presented to the Commission in November 1918,articulated principles still held by the Commission.In particular, decisions on non-repatriation ofremains and private memorials were designed toavoid class distinctions that would conflict with thefeeling of 'brotherhood' which had developedbetween all ranks serving at the Front. The reportsettled disagreements within the Commission but abigger storm was brewing. The restriction ofpersonal choice with regard to repatriation and theform of grave markers, led to powerful and vocalopposition.

The Work Begins

Sir Fabian Ware and The Prince of Wales at the dedication of the Thiepval Memorial

The debate on commemoration went toParliament, reaching its climax on 4 May 1920. TheCommission, represented by Members of theHouse, William Burdett-Coutts and the newChairman, Winston Churchill, put forward thepracticalities of Kenyon's choices and the ideal of afellowship in death that crossed all boundaries ofrace, creed or wealth. The opposition insisted onthe rights of the individual but Churchill's closingspeech touched on the very core of the issue. TheCommission was building memorials tocommemorate in perpetuity the sacrifice of anEmpire's soldiers. Future generations would gaze inwonder upon them and remember. The oppositionwas withdrawn.

Originally, three experimental cemeteries werebuilt. Of these, Forceville in France was agreed tobe the most successful. It was a walled cemeterywith uniform headstones in a garden setting, theCross of Sacrifice designed by Blomfieldrepresenting the faith of the majority and the Stoneof Remembrance designed by Lutyens representingthose of all faiths and of none. Careful design

ensured that structure and functionwere complemented by imaginativeuse of horticulture. With someadjustments, Forceville was to be thetemplate for the building programme.

With so many of the dead lost without trace theCommission was called upon to build numerousmemorials between 1923 and 1938. The largest,the Thiepval Memorial in France stands at over 45metres high and carries the names of over 72,000casualties from the Battle of the Somme. Thememorials signify the Commission's commitmentto commemorate individuals.

Construction underway at Coxyde Military Cemetery, Belgium

The memorial to the missing of the Somme at Thiepval, France

At the end of 1919, The Commission hadspent £7,500; twelve months later thatfigure had risen to £250,000. In Franceand Flanders alone, over 160 kilometresof walls had been erected using over280,000 cubic metres of good stone. In1923 over 4,000 headstones a week werebeing sent to France and by 1927 morethan 500 cemeteries were complete; over400,000 headstones, 1,000 Crosses ofSacrifice and 400 Stones of Remembrancehad been erected and 150,000 namescommemorated on memorials.

By the spring of 1921, 1,000 cemeterieshad been established and deemed fit toreceive visitors. By 1927, over 100kilometres of hedges had been planted.Today, the Commission has 710 hectaresof land under its control, of which 450 isunder fine horticultural maintenance.

The provision of over 500,000 headstones wasperhaps the greatest challenge facing theCommission. Apart from finding enough highquality stone, engraving regimental badges andinscriptions was a time-consuming affair. In an earlyindication of the Commission's willingness toinnovate, a Lancashire firm designed for theCommission a machine to trace details ontoheadstones; this considerably increased the speedof the engraving process.

Millions of plants were grown to transform thecemeteries and soften the seemingly endless rowsof headstones. For reasons of economy, theCommission established its own nurseries. Startedin 1919, the building programme was notcompleted until 1938.

Mechanisation over the years hasincreased the speed at which engravingcould be done. The latest computerisedsystem will allow a much faster rate ofengraving and the finished product isexpected to be of a higher standard.

The Commission’s latest Incisograph machine in action

A contractor engraving by hand at a workshop in the United Kingdom

Just one year later, war once more engulfedEurope and, although the Commission had gainedfrom its previous experience, the task of burial andcommemoration was to prove no less daunting.Learning the sad lessons of the First World War,the Services organised graves registration unitsfrom the start and early on land was earmarked foruse as cemeteries. However, the Commission alsorecognised the changing face of warfare. Theincreased use of air power meant that casualtieswere no longer restricted to military personnel.Ware urged the commemoration of all civiliandeaths caused by enemy action and this took theform of a roll of honour, which on completionnumbered over 66,000 names. In 1956 it wasplaced near St George's Chapel at WestminsterAbbey, London. A new page is turned every day.

As the tide of war moved in the Allies' favour, theCommission was able to return to many of its1914 - 1918 cemeteries and memorials; thankfully,most were undamaged structurally but in manycases horticultural work had to start again.Remarkably, within three years, the pre-warstandards had almost been restored.

Once more, the Commission took on thechallenge of construction work to commemoratethe 600,000 Commonwealth dead of this latestconflict. Over 350,000 headstones were required.In Normandy alone, almost 25 kilometres ofconcrete beams were needed to hold headstones.However, by October 1956, 90% of graves weremarked with a permanent headstone.

The Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery, completedin 1949, was the first of the Second World Warcemeteries to be finished. However, a shortage ofmen, tools and machinery, coupled with post-warunrest in some regions and the fact that even in1956 bodies were still being recovered from theroute of the 'Death Railway' in Burma, meant thatconstruction work was not finished until the 1960s.In all, the Commission built 559 new cemeteries,and thirty-six new memorials to add to thosecemeteries and memorials built after 1918.

The Second World War:Starting Afresh

After more than four years of horticultural neglect, work gets underway to restore Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium

With another 600,000 names to beadded to records already in excessof 1,100,000, the Commission keptpace with the task of recording thenames and details of Second WorldWar casualties. In 1947 over 60%were accounted for and by 1959over 400,000 names wererecorded and over 100,000registers had been produced forthe public.

The Commission also reorganised its structure tocope with the increased (in terms of numbers andgeographical spread) task of commemoration. WarGraves Agreements were extended or establishedwith the countries where the Commission had tocarry out the bulk of its work and internationalcommittees were formed. In 1956 aCommonwealth, German and French JointCommittee meeting was held in London. TheCommission recognised that the name 'Imperial' inits title was not in tune with the post warstrengthening of national and regional feelings and in1960 the name of the organisation was changed tothe "Commonwealth War Graves Commission".

After the war, traditional horticultural standardswere applied to the Commission's sites around theglobe, but greater use of machinery broughtdifferent ways of working and savings in costs.Horticultural staff tested new varieties of plants tocope with extremes of climate, they trained locallabour and in areas where cemeteries andmemorials were close to one another, mobilemaintenance groups were used to cover a numberof locations, thus allowing greater rationalisation ofstaff and machinery.

The future holds new challenges for theCommission: an unchanging job in a changing worldand a need to communicate the value and meaningof the cemeteries and memorials to a world-wideaudience, an increasing majority having littleknowledge of the two world wars, let alone of themeaning of commemoration.

Throughout the past ninety years, the Commission,in the interests of maintaining the highest standardsappropriate to those commemorated, has met thechallenges of construction, maintenance,conservation, development and innovation. In sodoing it has recruited and supported a committedwork force, used the most cost-effective methodsassociated with machinery, technology, stafforganisation, contracting and materials. Thechallenge to continuously improve its operationsand management remains and the Commission isdedicated to meeting that challenge with the samevigour it brings to the task of remembering the1,700,000 Commonwealth men and women whodied.

Originally, casualty data was stored oncard indexes which required over 3,000drawers. After the First World War detailswere compiled into some 1,500 registers.In 1995 the Commission’s records werecomputerised giving an operator betteraccess to the 1,700,000 namescommemorated by the Commission.Single casualties can be traced morequickly, from less information andadditional services, such as regimental orhome-town reports are now offered.

An office of the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries in 1922

Chungkai War Cemetery, Thailand

Commonwealth War Graves Commission enquiries@cwgc.org www.cwgc.org