Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission ( CWGC , originally Imperial War Graves Commission ) is an institution that, in collaboration with the Government of the United Kingdom, is responsible for the establishment, development and maintenance of British war cemeteries in the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations . In its area of responsibility, it is almost identical to the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge , with which it also works, the Austrian Black Cross and the US American Battle Monuments Commission .
history
The creation of the registration of the dead goes back to Sir Fabian Ware , who had already reached the age of 45 at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 and was therefore no longer accepted as an active officer in the British Army . He traveled to France in September 1914 and persuaded his friend and patron Viscount Milner to stand up for him. Supported by his protection, Fabian Ware took command of a mobile unit of the British Red Cross. Ware soon realized that there were large gaps in the registration of the fallen and began marking and listing the graves. This resulted in an organization for the registration of soldiers' graves, which was soon viewed as an aid organization for the International Committee of the Red Cross . In 1915 this facility was taken over by the army as the "War Graves Registration Commission" and Major General Sir Fabian Ware was now able to continue his work in the "Graves Registration Commission".
First World War
Between September 1914 and May 1915, this institution had made over 81,000 grave registrations and cataloged them with pictures, photographs and documents . Even during the fierce fighting on the Western Front , Ware considered what would happen to the graves after the end of the war. With the support of Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII ), this topic was discussed during one of the war conferences and on May 21, 1917 the "Royal War Graves Commission" was established. Its first President became the Prince of Wales, while Sir Fabian Ware was appointed Executive Chairman and held it successfully until 1948.
In November 1918 the director of the British Museum presented a draft in which the architectural and horticultural design was set out. Two proposals that sparked a controversial discussion were the recommendation not to return the corpse of a fallen man to their homeland and to erect the tombs according to a uniform architectural style without differentiating between ranks . Only on May 4, 1920, this draft for the construction of war cemeteries was approved by the House of Commons .
The first war cemeteries
The commission commissioned the architects Herbert Baker and Robert Lorimer (overall design), Reginald Blomfield (Cross of Sacrifice) and Edwin Lutyens (Stone of Remembrance) with the design of the first war cemeteries , their individual assemblies and elements , for the inscriptions were considered literary Consultant Rudyard Kipling was chosen, the garden architecture design was entrusted to the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll .
In 1920 the first war cemeteries designed according to the uniformly established rules were built in the French towns of Le Tréport ( Seine-Maritime department ) and in Forceville and Louvencourt (both in the Somme department ). In some cases, smaller collections of graves were dismantled and the victims reburied in larger facilities.
Second World War
With the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, the establishment of war graves registration units was a permanent part of the British Army. The increasing number of civilian victims from the Commonwealth of Nations prompted Ware to apply for these war victims to be registered as well. Winston Churchill agreed to this proposal and by the end of the Second World War a list of names of almost 67,000 victims had been registered. This "Book of the Dead" has been kept in Westminster Abbey since 1956 . Surprisingly, the war cemeteries from the First World War showed hardly any damage, and even the green spaces were in remarkably good condition.
In 1944 the British architect Philip Dalton Hepworth was appointed chief architect for the war cemeteries in north-western Europe.
In 1949, a Canadian military cemetery in Dieppe (France) was the first to be opened to the public. After the Second World War, more than 350,000 dead and fallen were buried in the 559 cemeteries of the CWGC, and 36 memorials were erected. The work lasted until the end of the 1960s and at that time the commission gave itself the current name "Commonwealth War Graves Commission".
President and Headquarters
The headquarters and administrative headquarters of the CWGC is in Maidenhead (United Kingdom), from here in 150 countries around the world more than 1.7 million military personnel and their dependents are looked after. 2,500 cemeteries were established, on which 73,000 graves were laid. President is Edward, 2nd Duke of Kent .
Member states
Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom have joined forces in the CWGC. The founding member Newfoundland gave up its membership in 1949 as it became part of Canada.
Military cemeteries and memorials
The largest cemeteries are in France and Belgium , they were created after the First World War. Other cemeteries of honor were also established in the Middle East and Iraq after the First World War. After the Second World War, further military cemeteries were opened in North Africa, the Far East, Italy and the Federal Republic of Germany.
The largest cemetery created by the CWGC is the " Ypres Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing " from the First World War. It is located north of the town of Ypres in Belgium, and almost 12,000 graves have been erected on it. The smallest cemetery to be looked after is on the island of Skyros (Greece), it only consists of one grave where Rupert Brooke was buried. The CWGC also built several memorials to commemorate the unknown dead and fallen from both world wars. The most powerful memorial is the "Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme", which was erected after the First World War in the village of Thiepval (Somme) in northern France. 72,000 missing military personnel are recorded here.
Design rules
Every cemetery designed and built by the CWGC is designed according to clear design rules and building codes. These were established in 1917 and are subject to strict implementation. As a result, the CWGC's military cemeteries are always the same in terms of their architectural and structural design. All honorary cemeteries should be made accessible to the public, because they should serve as a link between the living and the dead.
Tombstones
The gravestones are basically made of white sandstone and are the same in size and shape. Each stone contains the inscription, read from top to bottom, the military affiliation with the coat of arms of the unit , the name and rank, the religious affiliation (as far as this is known) and, at the request of the bereaved, a memorial is engraved in the foot of the tombstone. According to these criteria, all grave fields are leveled and laid out with strips of head beds; in principle, no spatial separation is made for individual rank groups .
Design of the cemetery complex
A free garden architecture design, as it is practiced in German military cemeteries, is not planned. Here, too, the design provisions laid down in 1917 apply again, from which deviations should only be made in special exceptional cases. In the case of the building parts, arcades, towers and smaller memorial stones, the architect is responsible for the design, who is supposed to adapt to rural customs so that a synthesis can be created between the place and the war victim.
In most cases, the cemeteries are fenced in with a low brick wall or hedge, so that a wider view of the cemetery complex is definitely possible. The spacious entrance area will be provided with the name plaque of the cemetery and a decorative entrance gate. It was stipulated that two central structures should be built in every British Cemetery of Honor:
- The "Cross of Sacrifice" with a bronze crusader sword on top, it should be 4.50–9.00 meters high. It was designed by Reginald Blomfield.
- Likewise, a rectangular “Stone of Remembrance” (memorial stone) with the inscription “Their Name Lives Forever” (“Their Name Liveth For Evermore”) must be built; the dimensions are 3.50 meters in length and 1.50 meters in height. It was designed by Edwin Lutyens.
Every cemetery has a small chapel-like house in which a small safe is installed, where the register of the dead is kept, which can be viewed by every visitor.
planting
The uniform floristic and botanical design is particularly striking ; the intention is to create a peaceful environment. If possible, native plants should be used, i. H. Plants from the homelands of the fallen. On the memorial sites erected in Germany, these are predominantly roses (e.g. the Gertrud Jekyll rose) and so-called ground cover .
All graves are laid out at ground level, the gravestones are surrounded by small beds . There are no paths between the rows of graves, but the entire cemetery area is planted with lawn. Smaller half-height bushes (e.g. boxwood) occasionally demarcate individual gravestone fields and parts of the building.
Branch offices of the CWGC
The Commission now works in 150 countries around the world. In addition to their headquarters in Maidenhead, there are several branch offices, which in most cases have their administrative offices near the major war cemeteries. There are small administrative offices in Turkey, Israel, Greece, Egypt, Tunisia and Kenya.
The main branches
- The “Western Europe” branch is based in France and coordinates the work for France (including Corsica ), Monaco and Switzerland .
- The “Northern Europe” administrative office is based in Ypres (Belgium) and is responsible for Belgium , the Czech Republic , Denmark , Germany , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Norway , Poland and Sweden .
- The work in Algeria , Austria , the Azores , the Canary Islands , Croatia , Gibraltar , Hungary , Italy , Madeira , Malta , Mauritania , Morocco , Portugal , San Marino , Spain and Tunisia is coordinated by the "Western Mediterranean" Commission, which has their office in Rome .
- The United Kingdom Office is home to the commission responsible for working in the Channel Islands , the Faroe Islands , Iceland , Ireland , the Isle of Man and the United Kingdom.
- The Canadian Commission, based in Ottawa , covers Canada and the United States of America .
- The “South Africa Office” in Centurion is responsible for South Africa and Namibia .
- The Australian War Graves office in Canberra includes operations in Australia , Norfolk Island , Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands .
- In India , volunteer liaison officers assist the Commission in working with local and central authorities.
Youth education center
The CWGC offers several projects as part of an online educational program. These can be used by schools and individuals and are intended to commemorate those who died in the two world wars. Links to war museums, special exhibitions and online games are provided and maintained by the CWGC.
Photo project
"The War Graves Photographic Project" initially aimed to photograph every single war grave and memorial in collaboration with the CWGC. This was very popular; It was decided to photograph war graves of all nationalities and make them traceable in a database. In March 2012 it contained over 1.7 million photos.
Web links
- Official website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (English)
- Veterans UK: Major General Sir Fabian Ware (English)
swell
- ↑ Your past is your future (Their past your future) ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ War Museum (Imperial War Museum)
- ↑ Football in Times of War (The Glory Days - Football in Times of War)
- ↑ Training packages and special exhibition: postalheritage.org.uk , lastpostexhibition ( memento of the original from October 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://twgpp.org
