Equipment used by headstone engravers of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.
Thread Nine
The considerable work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission [CWGC] is evident across the globe. I have visited their work at many sites in Canada and North West Europe, Malta, and Turkey.
Headstones and memorials require continual maintenance and often I have been delighted to see their work in progress as gardeners and stone masons tend the myriad of plantings and built landscapes carefully thought out to preserve these places of commemoration.
Apart from gardeners and masons, there are landscapers, painters, metal workers, tree surgeons, and other tradesmen, as well as a large number of staff who maintain the records of these souls who reside in their care. Together their work is seen as one…a fine standard to uphold and cherish by those of us who visit perhaps once in their lifetime or for some of us – on several occasions.
Not all that long ago a CWGC information centre was opened near to Menin Gate. Here CWGC staff assist visitors in trying to find their family’s loved ones and ancestors. One only has to visit these places of commemoration to see evidence of those who have taken steps to reconnect their Great War to themselves. It is family, it is a shared heritage…family…community…region…nation.
In Ypres, this August 2018, we walked from Ypres Reservoir Cemetery to Ypres Town Cemetery…the Menin Gate Memorial…to Woods Military Cemetery. We have stood beside a Prince and a Private, read messages from across this globe and stopped to look a little closer. Long may it continue that we are able to share our interests with our readers thanks to the vision of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
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Previously published Pipes of War website, 13 August 2018