Salisbury (Sarum) Probus Club

Commonwealth War Graves Commission  14^th March 2025

On 14^th 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.

Ron first served as a pilot in Aden; there he trained for many hours on a variety of jet planes. There the British had a presence striving to prevent the ingress of insurgents from surrounding Arab States. Once trained, he joined the squadrons on round the clock duty supporting the British Army. At that time the airport in Aden was one of the busiest in the world. With no modern satellite devices, the pilots had to find targets marked by personnel on the ground who laid day glo strips or created smoke indicators.

Ron remained in Aden for 2 years and then returned to the UK where he spent time as an instructor before progressing to his main role as a test pilot, at first with the United States Navy and then in England at Boscombe Down. The main aim was to make sure that the aircraft produced by designated suppliers matched the claims of those suppliers and, also met the needs of the Military Services.

If a plane was designed to perform in very low temperatures then it was put through icing tests to see it performed satisfactorily. Cold temperatures for instance can cause problems with the hydraulics on an aircraft. Similarly tests were devised to test the performance of aircraft in very hot and very dusty environments.

Obviously a test pilot flying a new design of aircraft with no simulators available to prepare him and only a few hours in which to study the instruction manual, ran risks and often there were unexpected outcomes; noses that suddenly rose or dropped, landing procedures that didn’t quite go as planned. Ron had a few narrow escapes and admits he was lucky.

As well as testing the flight of aircraft the Base at Boscombe Down was responsible for testing ejector seats and conducting trials on missiles to discover the best way to launch them from aircraft like the Jaguar that could be carrying a load as heavy as a World War 2 Lancaster bomber.

Eventually Ron retired, largely unscathed and had time to present talks like the one given to us. It was fascinating and members thanked Ron for giving time to share the obvious enthusiasm he still has for the subject.