The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars. The commission is also responsible for commemorating Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action during the Second World War. The commission was founded by Sir Fabian Ware and constituted through royal charter in 1917 as the Imperial War Graves Commission. The change to the present name took place in 1960.
The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteer Corps) (FANY (PRVC)) is a British independent all-female registered charity formed in 1907 and active in both nursing and intelligence work during the World Wars. Its members wear a military-style uniform, but it is not part of the Regular Army or Army Reserve; members do not train at Sandhurst, nor do they hold a commission.
Thomas Orde Lawder Wilkinson VC, was an English-born Canadian and British Army officer who was a recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. A soldier with the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment during the First World War, he was posthumously awarded the VC for his actions on 10 July 1916, during the Battle of the Somme.
The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with 10,500 volunteers and 3,500 staff. At the heart of their work is providing help to people in crisis, both in the UK and overseas. The Red Cross is committed to helping people without discrimination, regardless of their ethnic origin, nationality, political beliefs or religion. Queen Elizabeth II was the patron of the society until her death in 2022, and was replaced by her successor King Charles III, who previously served as president between 2003 and 2024.
The Civil Defence Service was a civilian volunteer organisation in Great Britain during World War II. Established by the Home Office in 1935 as Air Raid Precautions (ARP), its name was officially changed to the Civil Defence Service (CD) in 1941. The Civil Defence Service included the ARP Wardens Service as well as firemen, fire watchers, rescue, first aid post and stretcher parties. Over 1.9 million people served within the CD and nearly 2,400 lost their lives to enemy action.
The Italian bombing of Mandatory Palestine in World War II was part of an effort by the Royal Italian Air Force to strike at the United Kingdom by attacking those parts of the British Empire in the Middle East.
Arthur Warren Samuels was an Irish Unionist Alliance Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom Parliament and subsequently a judge. The Irish Unionists were the Irish wing of the Conservative Party.
The Austin K2/Y is a British heavy military ambulance that was used by all Commonwealth services during the Second World War.
The Civil Defence Corps (CDC) was a civilian volunteer organisation established in Great Britain in 1949 to mobilise and take local control of the affected area in the aftermath of a major national emergency, principally envisaged as being a Cold War nuclear attack. By March 1956, the Civil Defence Corps had 330,000 personnel. It was stood down in Great Britain in 1968, although two Civil Defence Corps still operate within the British Isles, namely the Isle of Man Civil Defence Corps and the unrelated Civil Defence Ireland in the Republic of Ireland. Many other countries maintain a national Civil Defence Corps, usually having a wide brief for assisting in large scale civil emergencies such as flood, earthquake, invasion, or civil disorder.
Étaples Military Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Étaples, near Boulogne on the north-west coast of France. The cemetery holds over 11,500 dead from both World War I and World War II.
Operation Checkmate was the codename for a raid on shipping at Haugesund, Norway in April 1943 during the Second World War by British Commandos. The raiding party consisted of seven men of No. 14 (Arctic) Commando who managed to sink one ship using limpet mines. While waiting in hiding for the transport back to the United Kingdom they were captured on 14 and 15 May 1943 and eventually taken to Sachsenhausen and Belsen concentration camps where six of them were executed, victims of the Commando Order. The seventh man died of typhus.
Lieutenant John Steel "Jock" Lewes was a British Army officer prominent during the Second World War. He was the founding principal training officer of the Special Air Service. Its founding commander, David Stirling, said later of Lewes, "Jock could far more genuinely claim to be founder of the SAS than I." Lewes also invented an explosive device for use by the SAS, the eponymous Lewes bomb.
The 195th (Airlanding) Field Ambulance was a Royal Army Medical Corps unit of the British airborne forces during the Second World War.
The Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Services (SWH) was founded in 1914. It was led by Dr Elsie Inglis and provided nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, cooks and orderlies. By the end of World War I, 14 medical units had been outfitted and sent to serve in Corsica, France, Malta, Romania, Russia, Salonika and Serbia.
Muriel Thompson was a decorated Scottish World War I ambulance driver, racing driver and suffragist.
Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the First World War in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. After Tyne Cot, it is the second largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in Belgium. Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery is located near Poperinge in the province of West Flanders. Most of those buried in the cemetery are war casualties who had been wounded near Ypres and later died in the four large Allied casualty clearing stations located in this area.
Evelyn May Cridlan was a British nurse and ambulance driver in the First World War. She was awarded the Military Medal in 1918 while serving in France as a driver in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY.). Her commendation noted the award was for "performing most efficient service in conveying the wounded to hospital during a bombing raid." She was also one of the earliest members of the Women's Engineering Society and the first woman to be elected a member of the Military Medalist's League, serving as a committee member until she became ill. On her death she left a legacy bequest of £100 to the Women's Transport Service.
Grace McDougall or Grace Alexandra Smith or Grace Ashley-Smith was a British officer of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). She is credited with reinventing that organisation and with being the first khaki bride. She gained British, French and Belgian medals.
(Antonia) Marian Gamwell OBE was a United Kingdom volunteer ambulance driver and commanding officer of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). She served with her sister Hope Gamwell during World War I and they then ran a farm in what is now Zambia. They both became pilots. They returned to the UK for World War Two and Marian commanded the FANYs after a row with the ATS. After the war they returned to Zambia before retiring to Jersey.
Beryl Hutchinson MBE was a British volunteer ambulance driver and officer of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. After the war she became Life President of the Society for Study of Physiological Patterns (Palmistry).
