A Foreword
“As we move ever further away from the two world wars it is vital, if we are to meet our obligations to those who gave their all in those two terrible conflicts, that we do not allow their names to simply fade into history” – Peter Francis
For more than ninety years, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has been faithfully keeping alive and paying the national debt of honour to those Commonwealth servicemen and women who died during the two world wars. We have done so, and indeed continue to do so, by maintaining the very fabric on which remembrance of the dead is focussed – the war graves, cemeteries and memorials to 1.7 million individuals to be found at some 23,000 locations in almost 150 countries.
That mammoth undertaking is perhaps the most outwardly visible sign of our work and yet of equal importance is the keeping and publishing of our records and registers of the fallen – for many the first clue or step in a moving commemorative journey that may lead them to some far-off corner of a foreign field.
As we move ever further away from the two world wars it is vital, if we are to meet our obligations to those who gave their all in those two terrible conflicts, that we do not allow their names to simply fade into history – that we engage new generations in the achievements and sacrifices of our forebears by encouraging them to put a human face to that name. That is why I commend this book to you, dear reader, for the very fact that it reminds us that these men and women came from our countries, our counties, our towns and villages and streets. They were living and contributing members of our communities and we are all the poorer for their loss. Only by “reclaiming” them as our own can we make them “live” again, put a face and a story to the name.
The Canadian war poet John McCrae spoke of a challenge to each and every one of us in his famous poem, In Flanders Fields. “If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep though poppies grow in Flanders Fields.” With the publication of this superb book, Peter and Michael Doyle have risen to that challenge. The rest is up to you.
Peter Francis
Head of External Communication
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
April 2009