Sarah opened the meeting by welcoming everyone, with a special welcome to our guests who had joined us for the evening. She introduced our speaker, Alan Gregory, whose topic was the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
During the early days of the First World War those killed in action were buried where they died in improvised graves and few records of the sites were kept. It became clear that because of the scale of casualties, repatriation was not possible and also the return of so many bodies would have had a very demoralising effect on those back home. Sir Fabian Ware, who was too old to serve but was working in the field for the Red Cross, realised that something had to be done.
With the support of the Prince of Wales, the Imperial War Graves Commission was founded by Royal Charter in 1917. The member states were the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand , South Africa and India. The United Kingdom provided the bulk of the funding with India only providing one percent as most of their casualties were cremated. The core principle of the Commission was that all war dead should be treated equally and that grave stones should be uniform. When the name of the soldier was not known this was recorded. Most of the sites were acquired in France and Belgium and key architects of the day like Sir Edwin Lutyens , who designed our own war memorial, were commissioned to design memorials where the names of the missing could be recorded, the most famous of these being the Menin Gate and the memorial at Tyne Cot.
Unfortunately many more sites on a world wide scale were needed after the Second World War for both those in the armed forces of all combatants but civilians too. Now the Commission is responsible for 1.7 million graves, two thousand five hundred cemeteries, twenty three thousand separate burial sites and two hundred memorials. All the cemeteries and memorials are beautifully maintained and the design of grave stones and planting reflects the different climatic conditions. Care is taken that the planting does not obscure the writing on the grave stones.
Alan was able to show us beautiful photographs to illustrate the planting from roses and herbaceous plants here to succulents and other drought resistant plants in hotter and more arid regions. Every effort is made to make it easy for relations and descendants of the fallen to visit the sites.
Apart from general memorials some honour a particularly brave individual. Some of these honour women. Although nurses played a vital part in the First World War and certainly showed heroism, the role of women had changed by the time of the Second World War and many died in action. Alan drew our attention to examples of women who had shown remarkable bravery. One he identified as Nora who manned an anti-aircraft battery in Southampton and was the first girl to be killed at her Post in 1942.
Another was First Officer Rosamund Everard-Steencamp who died in 1946. Rosamund, a South African Aviator, was killed when the Spitfire she was flying from RAF Hamble to Shropshire crashed. Her memorial is in Maidenhead.
There are many local memorials, cemeteries and individual graves maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission., the memorial on Southsea Common, the cemeteries at Haslar and Netley probably being the best known. All rely to a large extent on volunteers to maintain them. The larger local cemeteries will provide guided tours during War Graves Week, which will be held next year from the 16th to the 24th May and would be a good time to visit.
Our next meeting will be held in the village hall at 7.30pm. on Wednesday, 11th November. The talk by Helen Carter is entitled "Japanese Embroidery and Kimonos".
All visitors are welcome and there is no charge.
Eileen Reynolds
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