The Commonwealth Conversation

Remembering the Commonwealth fallen

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. In an interview for the Commonwealth Conversation, Sir Ian Garnet, the Vice-Chairman of the CWGC talks about the links between the commission’s work and the people of the Commonwealth today.

Transcript:

What are the origins of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission?

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission started off as the Imperial War Graves Commission, and it’s really due to one man, Sir Fabian Ware, who went to France in September 1915 with the Red Cross, and very soon he became concerned that no-one was responsible for marking and maintaining the increasing number of graves of the casualties of the First World War, on the Western Front. And so eventually he persuaded the authorities, the U.K. authorities, to form a Graves Registration Commission that began to mark and record all the graves in that part of the world. And that grew to become, in 1917, the Imperial War Graves Commission. That Charter that was produced contains the core tasks of the Commission, now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission; they are to mark and maintain the graves of Commonwealth soldiers, sailors and airmen who were killed in the First and Second World Wars, to maintain memorials for those who have no graves, and to maintain records.

How relevant is the Commission’s work to the people of the Commonwealth nowadays?

If you think of the many thousands of Commonwealth citizens, a total of 1.7 million from both World Wars, who gave their lives for the Commonwealth, what we do today, looking after the graves and memorials of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, is hugely important. There are thousands of people whose ancestors gave their lives fighting for the Commonwealth. And, of course, we have to remember, in the First World War many thousands of people who fought for the Empire, as it was called then, considered they were British citizens; they happened to be in Canada or Australia or New Zealand or India, but actually they felt they were fighting for their home country, Great Britain, within the Empire. So all the people today who get in touch with us through our website-and we get upwards of half a million hits a month-visit our many cemeteries-and there are over 23, 000 burial plots around the world, 2000 in France alone, in fact, a third of our casualties are in France- they come to visit our cemeteries to see where their ancestors, where their family members, fought and died, for, not just to say a country, but for the Commonwealth.

What does visiting a Commonwealth cemetery or memorial mean to you personally?

To me, it means how much the Commonwealth meant to the people whose graves I see, and the memorials I see. When I see, to name but a few, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, the many thousands of volunteers from undivided India, it means to me that those people were prepared to come and fight and give their lives for their country and the Commonwealth, and that makes me feel very humble, very humble indeed.

Category : Historical Legacy, The Commonwealth's Relevance
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