News
Commonwealth Grave Commission - March 2025
On 14th March Christopher Brown
spoke to the Club about the history and work of the Commonwealth
Graves Commission.
Inspired by his mother’s concern for a great
uncle who had perished in Iraq in 1916 and seeing the lists of the
fallen on the Town Memorial in Wimborne Minster, Christopher became
interested in where dead service personnel were buried. It led to
research into the work of the CWGC and to him becoming a volunteer
speaker for the organisation.
He discovered that the Commission cares for
headstones and memorials in 23,000 locations worldwide. It was
founded in 1916 and supported by 6 Commonwealth Governments – Uk,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand India and South Africa. The policy
was agreed early in the First World War that repatriation of the
dead was impractical. The fallen were at first buried in rough
graves, near where they fell. After the war the bodies were
collected into Cemeteries and, each grave marked with a standard
headstone, whatever the rank of the person interred. This was the
first time the dead of Battles were commemorated in any official
way; no formal memorials exist for earlier conflicts.
The dead of the Second World War were included,
and memorials exist all over the world for the fallen of these
battles. Statutes limited and still limit the CWGC to look after
memorials of the dead of the two World Wars. Those who died in other
conflicts are dealt with by the Ministry of Defence.
Where known each headstone bears basic
information about the departed and may include a personal tribute by
their family. Where the person is unknown the stone records this
fact. Those who died in either conflict but whose remains were never
found or identified, are commemorated on memorials, some large,
others more modest. All are cared for by the CWGC.
The organisation is always in need of
volunteers to help with the work of maintaining graves and spreading
information about their work.
Christopher received a warm ovation for a very
detailed and carefully prepared talk.
