The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) aims to commemorate the UK and Commonwealth dead of the World Wars, either by maintaining a war grave in a cemetery, or where there is no known grave, by listing the dead on a memorial to the missing. [1]
The majority of the memorials commissioned by the CWGC to commemorate the missing dead of World War I were erected in Belgium and France along or near to the Western Front. The following list is of the CWGC memorials to the missing of the First World War erected elsewhere, both in the UK and other regions of the worlds, limited to those that list more than 1000 names each.
The total from the 'numbers' column below of those listed on these memorials is 138,062.
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 Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown. The memorial is located at the eastern exit of the town and marks the starting point for one of the main roads out of the town that led Allied soldiers to the front line. Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and built by the Imperial War Graves Commission, the Menin Gate Memorial was unveiled on 24 July 1927.
Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It is near the village of Thiepval, Picardy in France. A visitors' centre opened in 2004. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, Thiepval has been described as "the greatest executed British work of monumental architecture of the twentieth century".
Ploegsteert Wood was a sector of the Western Front in Flanders in World War I, part of the Ypres Salient. It is located around the Belgian village of Ploegsteert, Wallonia.
Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing 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. It is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any war. The cemetery and its surrounding memorial are located outside Passendale, near Zonnebeke in Belgium.
The Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) memorial in Belgium for missing soldiers of World War I. It commemorates men from the Allied Powers who fought on the northern Western Front outside the Ypres Salient and whose graves are unknown. The memorial is located in the village of Ploegsteert and stands in the middle of Berks Cemetery Extension.
The Bayeux War Cemetery is the largest Second World War cemetery of Commonwealth soldiers in France, located in Bayeux, Normandy. The cemetery contains 4,648 burials, mostly of the Invasion of Normandy. Opposite this cemetery stands the Bayeux Memorial which commemorates more than 1,800 casualties of the Commonwealth forces who died in Normandy and have no known grave.
The Stone of Remembrance is a standardised design for war memorials that was designed in 1917 by the British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens for the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC). It was designed to commemorate the dead of World War I, to be used in IWGC war cemeteries containing 1,000 or more graves, or at memorial sites commemorating more than 1,000 war dead. Hundreds were erected following World War I, and it has since been used in cemeteries containing the Commonwealth dead of World War II as well. It is intended to commemorate those "of all faiths and none", and has been described as one of Lutyens' "most important and powerful works", with a "brooding, sentinel-like presence wherever used".
Fromelles Military Cemetery is a First World War cemetery built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on the outskirts of Fromelles in northern France, near the Belgian border. Constructed between 2009 and 2010, it was the first new Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery for more than 50 years, the last such cemeteries having been built after the Second World War. The cemetery contains the graves of 250 British and Australian soldiers who died on 19 July 1916 in the Battle of Fromelles.
Jerusalem British War Cemetery is a British cemetery in Jerusalem for fallen servicemen of the British Commonwealth in the World War I in Palestine.
The North Front Cemetery is a cemetery located in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Also known as the Gibraltar Cemetery and the Garrison Cemetery, it is the only graveyard still in use in Gibraltar. It is also the only Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery in Gibraltar. The two CWGC monuments, the Gibraltar Memorial and the Gibraltar Cross of Sacrifice, are positioned nearby at the junction of Winston Churchill Avenue and Devil's Tower Road.
The Helles Memorial is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission war memorial near Sedd el Bahr, in Turkey, on the headland at the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula overlooking the Dardanelles. It includes an obelisk which is over 30 metres (98 ft) high.
Hollybrook Cemetery is a cemetery in Bassett, Southampton, England containing around 53,000 graves as of August 2012 and still open to new burials as of March 2016. It is one of the main cemeteries in Southampton.
The Dunkirk Memorial is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial to the missing that commemorates 4,505 missing dead of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), most of whom fell prior to and during the Battle of Dunkirk in 1939 and 1940, in the fall of France during the Second World War.
The Doiran Memorial is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission war memorial that is both a battlefield memorial and a memorial to the missing. It honours the dead of the British Salonika Force as well as commemorating by name the 2171 missing dead of that force who fell in fighting on the Macedonian front during the First World War in the period 1915–1918.
Known unto God is a phrase used on the gravestones of unknown soldiers in Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemeteries. The phrase was selected by British poet Rudyard Kipling who worked for what was then the Imperial War Graves Commission during the First World War. The origin of the phrase is unknown but it has been linked to sections of the King James Bible. The phrase was re-used for those killed during the Second World War and appears on more than 212,000 gravestones across the world. In 2013 there was controversy when it was proposed that the phrase be removed from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Australian War Memorial.
Adelaide River War Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery at 105 Memorial Terrace, Adelaide River, Northern Territory, Australia. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.
