Lest we forget

Celebrating 100 years ensuring the fallen from wars are never forgotten.

On Tuesday 23rd May 2017 there was a “Service Of Thanksgiving To Celebrate The  Centenary Of The Commonwealth Wargraves Commission’ held at Westminster Abbey at mid-day.

The Commonwealth Wargraves Commission (CWGC) was granted its Royal Charter on 21^st May 1917 during what was possibly the darkest year of World War I for Britain and its allies. On the first page of the program Dr. Glyn Prysor, the Chief Historian of the CWGC, says that its founding ‘came at a time when the prospect of victory had never seemed more distant’.  Embodied in the Royal Charter are the following four founding principles:

• Each of the dead should be commemorated by name on the headstone or memorial
• Headstones and memorials should be permanent
• Headstones should be uniform
• There should be no distinction made on account of military or civil rank, race or creed

Among those attending the service were His Royal Highness, The Duke of Kent who maintains a long association with the CWGC and The Right Hon Sir Michael Fallon KCB, Secretary of State for Defence. Also attending were political representatives of the Commonwealth countries and representatives from the religions of the world. Music was provided by The Band of The Scots Guards and the Countess of Wessex’s String Orchestra. The congregation comprised of contingents from all three services, retired service personnel, Chelsea Pensioners and civilians.

At the start of the service the Dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend Dr. John Hall, asked for a minute’s silence from the congregation as a mark of respect to those sadly killed or severely injured, their families and the crews of the emergency services involved in the tragic bombing in Manchester the previous evening. The minute’s silence was sliced by the siren of an emergency vehicle going past the Abbey serving as a stark reminder that we were all surrounded by very tight security.

The service began with a reading of ‘In Flanders Fields’ by Her Excellency Janice Charette, the Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Her soft Canadian intonations enveloped the words of this poem with emotion and meaning that were written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, himself a Canadian, in 1915. He had just lost a very good friend in the mud and desolation of Flanders. Or as Rudyard Kipling said ‘on bare hills flayed y years of battle’. Yet, despite man’s best efforts to obliterate himself and the surrounding countryside the wild poppies still grew reminding us that we are only ever temporary custodians of the earth and nature will always win. It was this poem that inspired the adoption of the red poppy as the floral symbol of remembrance.

The work of the CWGC was inspired by Major General Sir Fabian Ware KCVO CBE CB CMG (1869 – 1945). He served with a unit of the Red Cross during the initial months of World War I. In 1916 he was responsible for the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries which photographed and recorded the locations of burial sites for soldiers killed in action. In very early 1917, with the assistance of the then Prince of Wales, he submitted a memo to the Imperial War Conference proposing the establishment of permanently staffed organisation to care for the dead of the British Empire. This lead to the Royal Charter being prepared in May of that year.

There were two testimonies about the work of the CWGC by it’s own representatives. Sir Michael Fallon then read a lesson that must have been difficult for him not to be distracted as on that same day he had to attend a meeting of the Government’s COBRA Committee to discuss a strategy for dealing with the escalated terrorist threat here in the UK. As he was reading from The Book of Job some more sirens from emergency vehicles could be heard rushing past the Abbey.

For the last one hundred years the CWGC has been honouring the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth who died in the two world wars of the twentieth century without reference to rank, race or creed. The embrace of this dedication to those lost lives reaches from the head office in Maidenhead to over 25,000 locations spread across 154 countries. That geographical spread is quite an achievement bearing in mind that there are only 196 recognised countries in the world. All of this is supported by a staff of 1,300 ranging from gardeners working in remote locations, administrative staff, architects, archivists and senior management teams actively coordinating all of the functions of this organisation to ensure the memory of those fallen in battle never fades.

The first verse of the hymn the congregation sang was:

In Christ there is no east or west,

In him no south or north

But one great fellowship of love

Throughout the whole wide earth.

And no four lines of words could better embrace the four founding principles of the organisation.

One of the songs was charged with even more emotion than ‘In Flanders Fields’. It was a Maori translation of a hymn chosen for this service. It was one that was sung by the soldiers of the 28^th (Maori) Battalion just before the battle at Chinuk Bair in Gallopili. This battle against the forces of the Ottoman Empire lasted for five days costing both sides 50% of their troops. At the end of the battle when the ground gained had been lost back to the Ottomans the Maoris sang the hymn again. This was sung a capella by Ngati Ranana of the London Maori Club.

As the congregation left the Abbey they had to file past the Tomb of The Unknown Warrior. All stopped to look and pay respects. Members of the armed services stopped for brief seconds to pay respects to a fallen comrade. Civilians stopped to look and wonder. One father with a young daughter of no more than five years old squatted down to her height. He was clearly explaining to her what the significance of the bright flowers surrounding the shiny piece of marble set in the floor of the Abbey. Surrounding this tomb inset into the floor were memorial plaques to the politicians who made the decisions about war but these are nowhere near as proud and clear as that marking The Tomb of The Unknown Warrior which has lain there in state since 11^th November 1920.

When you go home

Tell them of us and say

For your tomorrow

We gave our today

(John Maxwell Edmonds)