On the Great War battlefields of Western Europe, men of the British Empire were dying in appalling numbers as they engaged the German army. The enemy had advanced into France and Belgium and was solidly entrenched along its heavily fortified frontline. Germany fought largely to defend its territorial gains, while British command was determined to push it back at any cost.
The horrendous conditions of battle meant that soldiers in great numbers lay where they fell, comrades risking their lives daily to retrieve the bodies and often dying themselves in the attempt. Subsequent attacks on the same broken ground meant stumbling over corpses lying lost in muddy fields of battle.
Taking Care of the Battlefield Dead
In the unimaginable conditions of this most hostile environment, everyone had to do the best they could. In the early months of the war, fallen soldiers who could be given a proper burial were placed in makeshift gravesites, little time given to ceremony or permanent memory of their sacrifice. Nobody had overall responsibility for properly disposing of the dead, and calls from home were growing for more civilised treatment of sons who would never return home.
Responsible for the mobile Red Cross mission in the Flanders city of Lille, Fabian Ware was a volunteer by then too old for active military service. Part of the Red Cross role was to provide next of kin with information about the missing and the dead, and Ware ensured his fellow volunteers recorded any identification they found on every rudimentary grave, and the locations of all field cemeteries they came across.
Major General Sir Fabian Ware, to give him the rank and title he eventually earned, was later seen as quite visionary. He foresaw the tragic consequences of neglecting the dead and the sad implications for relatives as the war passed. Ware’s commitment to documenting the soldiers’ last resting places expanded to caring for the very places they lay. He took the lead in changing scattered and temporary gravesites into war cemeteries that would be maintained to the highest standard of care - magnificent memorials to those who gave their lives, not just in Flanders but throughout the world where British Commonwealth forces would be engaged in 20th century military conflict.
Permanent Memorials to the Casualties of War
When official recognition for Ware’s work came, he was put in charge of what would begin as the Graves Registration Commission, a cooperative venture between the British Army and the Red Cross. That was in March 1915, and by October the Commission had located, marked, if necessary erected an inscribed wooden cross on, and registered over 31,000 graves. Field officers were assigned responsibility for their own sectors of the war zone, and back at headquarters Ware’s team maintained two grave registers – one by regiment, the other by location.
Negotiations with French authorities for the acquisition of land followed, so that Britain could take ownership in perpetuity of the cemeteries containing its war dead. France also offered to assist with upkeep of the grave sites, but it was eventually decided that task would remain under British control. To keep next of kin informed of loved ones’ last resting places, photographs were produced with a record of their locations and how relatives might get to them, once peace came.
By May 1916 the Commission had grown and been restructured as the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries. Communication with and consolation for the bereaved was now a part of its role. Ware had plans for developing over 200 permanent cemeteries in Flanders and further afield, and with help from staff at Kew Gardens was working on a horticultural policy that would determine the sites’ high standard of future presentation.
Remembering the British Empire's Fallen
With the size of the task sadly growing all the time and as thoughts turned to the post-war status of the sites, moves began in early 1917 to establish an organisation under Royal Charter. It would represent all members of the Empire that were contributing to the war effort, losing men and women in the process. On 21 May 1917, the Imperial War Graves Commission came into being, charged with caring for all members of the British Empire’s armed forces who “died from wounds inflicted, accident occurring or disease contracted, while on active service whether on sea or land.”
The achievements of those given the task of caring for the fallen in the midst of conflict is testament to their massive commitment and dedication to properly honouring the casualties of war. A standard headstone design reflected a basic tenet of the Commission’s philosophy – it did not distinguish rank but treated all fallen comrades as equals. As early as July 1917 some of Britain’s leading architects were in the war zone considering the memorials that would later be erected where the war dead lay.
In the immediate post-war years, construction began in earnest to create those fitting memorials that stand today – the Menin Gate in Ypres, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thievpal, and Tyne Cot at Passchendaele, to name just three. The last Great War memorial was unveiled at Villers-Bretonneux on the Somme just one year before World War II began.
Today the Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains some 23,000 sites in 150 countries, caring for the graves and memorials of nearly 1.7 million Commonwealth servicemen and women who died in the two world wars
Reference
J Summers & B Harris, Remembered, The History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Merrell, London, 2007
Brian Cross - Brian is a feelance writer specialising in content for the corporate sector, based in Wellington, New Zealand.
Join the Conversation