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War Graves

Morturn

Morturn

Super Moderator
Staff member
The friends of Brandwood Cemetery has just posted an enquiry on social media asking why some war graves are in little isolated groups.

Just wondering if it’s because their bodies were never bought back home so a fitting memorial was placed instead.492239910_10161604038592106_4685353577453431840_n.jpg
 
As far as I know, the majority of the bodies of those who died fighting in WW1 and WW2 weren't brought home. In fact I think there was a policy to not bring them home. If families wanted them home, they would have had to pay for it themselves.

Perhaps those at Brandwood died in this country, having been brought home injured and being nursed in hospital ?
 
A post on the Great War forum

Repatriation from a war zone was banned from mid-1915. Prior to that time only a handful of officers were repatriated to the UK due to relatives having to pay the cost. The ban was put in place mainly because of the logistical, health and morale problems the return of thousands of bodies would create. The cost would have been irrelevant as it would be borne by the relatives - presumably.

It would be interesting to know the dates on any of the "isolated" stones.
I know I have a great uncle who died back here (at Uffculme) and is buried at Lodge Hill. He is separate from other war graves but I believe his family refused a stone (certainly there is no stone of any sort on the grave) so I am not sure if that is the reason why.
 
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After WW2 the War Graves commission moved a lot of bodies from scattered locations across the UK to be reburied. There were two reasons 1. To make the tending of the graves easier for the Commission. 2. To move the graves closer to where their families lived, to make it easier for their loved ones to visit. Many graves were moved in "batches" that led to these groupings in churchyards. These would have been servicemen and women who had died from accidents or of their wounds in hospital or aircrew who had crashed in the UK or seamen who had been washed ashore.

In general, British servicemen who died abroad in both World Wars were buried abroad - "There is a corner of a foreign field... " - again, the bodies were gathered together by the War Graves Commission and reburied in large cemeteries to make tending them easier.

It was only in more recent wars, where there was a real danger of the graves being desecrated after our troops had left, that the MOD began shipping bodies home for burial. Although a lot of British families chose to have their loved ones buried in the Falkland Islands after the conflict there.
 
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My Wifes Great uncle died in Selly Oak Hospital in 1944 and is in a CWGC grave at Yardley......in amongst " ordinary" graves. I think they visit them now and then making sure they are presentable. We had put a message on the grave and it was gone next time we visited and since then I have read the Commision removes this type of thing. The grave surround had collapsed a bit as his wife was interned her in 1990 and it disturbed things.I have tidied the sides and still a bit more to do. We tried to find out why he has a grave as he seems to have died from a Kidney thing and maybe not connected with any "action" but so far no records forthcoming.
 

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Keith R said:
My Wifes Great uncle died in Selly Oak Hospital in 1944 and is in a CWGC grave at Yardley......in amongst " ordinary" graves. I think they visit them now and then making sure they are presentable. We had put a message on the grave and it was gone next time we visited and since then I have read the Commision removes this type of thing. The grave surround had collapsed a bit as his wife was interned her in 1990 and it disturbed things.I have tidied the sides and still a bit more to do. We tried to find out why he has a grave as he seems to have died from a Kidney thing and maybe not connected with any "action" but so far no records forthcoming.
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Good man for trying to make it look right, regardless of how he died. I offered my services at tidying up the graves at the local church, they said they'd rather have the wild life. I think an untidy graveyard, is having no regard for those therein. Times change I Know, when I first moved here 40 yrs ago, there was a local who always kept th graveyard tidy. When he cut the grass, he used to say, "Come on, pick your feet up, I'm not cutting toenails today":)
 
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