Commonwealth War Graves Commission

"Established by Royal Charter in 1917, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission pays tribute to the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two world wars. It is a non-profit-making organisation that was founded by Sir Fabian Ware."

The Commission only commemorates those who have died during the designated war years in service or of causes attributable to service.
The war years are considered to be:
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World War I	4 August 1914 to 31 August 1921
World War II	3 September 1939 to 31 December 1947

The following link will provide a history of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
 http://www.cwgc.org/content.asp?menuid=1&submenuid=4&id=4&menuname=History&menu=sub

The Commission maintains graves and memorials at some 23,000 sites in over 150 countries worldwide. The largest of the Commission’s memorials to the missing, is the Thiepval Memorial in France, standing at over 45 metres high and carrying the names of over 72,000 casualties from the Battle of the Somme.

One of these sites is shown below    

The picture is by Rob Lovesey taken on August 31, 2011 and downloaded from FLICKR 4 Oct 2011

'Tyne Cot' or 'Tyne Cottage' was the name given by the Northumberland Fusiliers to a barn which stood near the level crossing on the Passchendaele-Broodseinde road. The barn, which had become the centre of five or six German blockhouses, or pill-boxes, was captured by the 3rd Australian Division on 4 October 1917, in the advance on Passchendaele. One of these pill-boxes was unusually large and was used as an advanced dressing station after its capture. From 6 October to the end of March 1918, 343 graves were made, on two sides of it, by the 50th (Northumbrian) and 33rd Divisions, and by two Canadian units. The cemetery was in German hands again from 13 April to 28 September, when it was finally recaptured, with Passchendaele, by the Belgian Army. TYNE COT CEMETERY was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when remains were brought in from the battlefields of Passchendaele and Langemarck, and from a few small burial grounds. It is now the largest Commonwealth War Grave cemetery in the world in terms of burials. At the suggestion of King George V, who visited the cemetery in 1922, the Cross of Sacrifice was placed on the original large pill-box. There are three other pill-boxes in the cemetery. There are now 11,956 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in Tyne Cot Cemetery. 8,369 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to more than 80 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate 20 casualties whose graves were destroyed by shell fire. There are 4 German burials, 3 being unidentified. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.


There is a continuing search for any unmarked sites which may contain the bodies of soldiers who have no know graves. When these are found, a strong effort to identify the remains is made and where possible a name is connected to the body, a reburial occurs in an established war cemetery and headstone erected at the new site. This is what happened at Fromelles during 2010.


14 more soldiers named at Fromelles ceremony from War Graves Commission on Vimeo.



By preserving the memory of the dead with simple dignity and true equality, the Commission hopes to encourage future generations to remember the sacrifice made by so many.


Most of the text on this page has been extracted from the site of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Viewed 4 Oct 2011
http://www.cwgc.org/default.asp
Director of Communication and Information : DAVID SYMONS
Director of Information Technology : ANDREW BISHOP
Director of Information Services : BERNARD McGEE