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The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is a joint governmental organisation responsible for marking and maintaining the graves of members of the Commonwealth of Nations' military forces that died in the two world wars and subsequent wars, to build memorials to those with no known grave, and to keep records of the war dead. The Commission is responsible for the commemoration of 1.7 million Commonwealth servicemen and women in 150 countries worldwide.

The six member nations are Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Newfoundland was a founding member but ceased to have separate status from 1949, when it became a part of Canada. The President of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is HRH The Duke of Kent.

The largest cemeteries are in France and Belgium, and were built after the First World War. A number of cemeteries are also present in the Middle East and Iraq, as a result of battles against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, and in North Africa and Italy from the Second World War. The largest Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery is Tyne Cot Cemetery, north of Ypres, which contains nearly 12,000 graves; the smallest maintained site contains the remains of only Rupert Brooke, and is located on Skyros.

Design

Each cemetery is made up of rows of white gravestones; unlike French or German graves, these are not shaped like crosses, but are, instead, rectangles with rounded tops. However, each gravestone is marked with a cross, except for those where the deceased was known to belong to another religion, in which case, another symbol is provided. The graves are also marked with the name, rank and unit symbol of the soldier. Many soldiers are unknown; their gravestones bear no name, and have the phrase "Known Unto God" engraved upon them. Some graves also have additional phrases added by friends or family.

The cemeteries are normally surrounded by a low brick wall, often with a decorative gate over the entrance. Many have an identical war memorial, called the 'Cross of Sacrifice' and designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield; these vary in height from 4.5m to 9m, depending on the size of the cemetery. If there are one thousand or more burials, a Commonwealth cemetery will contain a 'Stone of Remembrance', designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and bearing words from the book of Ecclesiasticus: "Their name liveth for evermore". All the Stones of Remembrance are 3.5m long and 1.5m high, with three steps leading up to them. Each cemetery has a plaque that explains in which war the soldiers died and provides some background history. They also have a visitors book and a register of everyone buried in the cemetery.

On the Gallipoli Peninsula, and at the Haidar Pasha Cemetery in Istanbul, the cemeteries have slightly different design features. To prevent masonary sinking into water-sodden ground, the graves have stone-faced pedestal markers rather than headstones, and instead of a freestanding Cross of Sacrifice, the cross is built into a wall.

Financing

The War Graves Commission's work is funded predominantly by grants from the governments of the six member states. In the FY2004/05, these grants amounted to £38.9m. The contribution from each country is proportionate to the number of graves preserved, and grants are thus broken down as follows:

Vandalism

CWGC cemeteries are generally respected as humanitarian, non-political sites, and instances of vandalism and desecration appear to be rare; when they do occur they tend to make news in Commonwealth countries. For instance, on 9 May 2004, 33 headstones were demolished in the Gaza Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery, which contains 3,500 graves, allegedly in retaliation for the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

Some of the monuments and cemeteries maintained by the CWGC

• The Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, a memorial to missing soldiers in the Ypres Salient
• Three cemeteries on the Death Railway
• The Kranji War Memorial and Cemetery in Singapore
• The The Ottawa Memorial in Ottawa, Canada
• Cemeteries in Hong Kong at Sai Wan, and at Stanley in the Falkland Islands

Footnotes

1. Architecture. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved on 3 July 2006.
2. Haidar Pasha Cemetery (Template:PDFlink). Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved on 3 July 2006.
3. The Gallipoli Campaign, 1915 (Template:PDFlink). Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved on 3 July 2006.
4. ^ The Commission Finances (Template:PDFlink). Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved on 3 July 2006.
5. CWGC website, accessed 3 July 2006
6. "Palestinians vandalise UK war graves". Lynfield, Ben The Scotsman, 11 May 2004, accessed 3 July 2006.

External links

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission homepage
• For King and Empire
• British War Memorial Project
• Maple Leaf Legacy Project
• Australian War Grave Photographic Archive
• South Africa War Graves Project
• United Kingdom National Index of War Memorial
• Courage Remembered

• Military memorials and cemeteries
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries
• Canadian military memorials and cemeteries