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Title: The Graves of the Fallen
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Illustrator: Douglas MacPherson
Release date: June 2, 2017 [eBook #54830]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Mary Glenn Krause, Chuck Greif, MFR, University
of California and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAVES OF THE FALLEN ***
The Graves
of the Fallen
[Illustration]
Imperial War Graves Commission
NOTE.
_This Descriptive Account of the work of the Imperial War Graves
Commission was written by Mr. Rudyard Kipling at the Commission’s
request. The Illustrations showing the cemeteries and memorials as
they will appear when completed are by Mr. Douglas Macpherson._
_What the Commission is._
The Commission consists of:--
The Secretary of State for War.
The Secretary of State for the Colonies.
The Secretary of State for India.
The First Commissioner of Works.
The Hon. Sir George Perley, K.C.M.G. (appointed by the Government
of Canada).
The Right Hon. Andrew Fisher, P.C. (appointed by the Government of
Australia).
The Hon. Sir Thomas Mackenzie, K.C.M.G. (appointed by the
Government of New Zealand).
The Right Hon. W. P. Schreiner, P.C., K.C., C.M.G. (appointed by
the Government of the Union of South Africa).
The Hon. Sir Edgar Bowring (appointed by the Government of
Newfoundland).
and the following members who accepted the invitation to help in this
work, and were appointed by Royal Warrant:--
Sir William Garstin, G.C.M.G., G.B.E.
Mr. Harry Gosling, C.H., J.P.
Mr. Rudyard Kipling.
General Sir C. F. N. Macready, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.
General Sir Herbert C. O. Plumer, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O.
Admiral Sir Edmund S. Poë, G.C.V.O., K.C.B.
Major-General Fabian Ware, C.B., C.M.G.
All letters should be addressed to the Secretary, Imperial War Graves
Commission, Winchester House, St. James’s Square, S.W. 1; and not to any
individual member of the Commission.
_Its History._
The origin and development of the Imperial War Graves Commission is very
simple. In the first days of the war the different armies engaged
created organisations, under the direction of the War Office, to
register, mark, and tend the graves of British soldiers, as well as to
answer inquiries from relatives, and, where possible, to send them
photographs of the graves. Later, a National Committee was constituted,
which, on the suggestion of the Prince of Wales, who took a keen
personal interest in the work, was expanded into an Imperial Commission,
representing the Dominions, India, the Colonies, the fighting Services,
Labour, the great public departments interested, and the British Red
Cross, which latter had supplied, as it still does to a considerable
extent, the funds for photographing and planting the graves.
_Its Finance._
The finance of the Commission is Imperial. All parts of the Empire have
generously and unreservedly promised to bear their share of the
expenses. The Imperial War Conference, having considered the proposals
of the Commission, passed the following resolution on June 17, 1918:
“The Conference desires to place on record its appreciation of the
Labours of the Imperial War Graves Commission, and is in favour of the
cost of carrying out the decisions of the Commission being borne by the
respective Governments in proportion to the numbers of the graves of
their dead.”
[Illustration: A WAR CEMETERY WITH PERMANENT MEMORIALS AS DESIGNED.]
_THE CEMETERIES._
With the growth of the war the Commission’s work naturally covered every
part of the world where the men of the Empire had served and died--from
the vast and known cities of our dead in Flanders and France to hidden
and outlying burial-grounds of a few score at the ends of the earth.
These resting-places are situated on every conceivable site--on bare
hills flayed by years of battle, in orchards and meadows, beside
populous towns or little villages, in jungle-glades, at coast ports, in
far-away islands, among desert sands, and desolate ravines. It would be
as impossible as undesirable to reduce them all to any uniformity of
aspect by planting or by architecture.
In a war where the full strength of nations was used without respect of
persons, no difference could be made between the graves of officers or
men. Yet some sort of central idea was needed that should symbolise our
common sacrifice wherever our dead might be laid; and it was realised,
above all, that each cemetery and individual grave should be made as
permanent as man’s art could devise.
_Their Design and Care._
The Commission instructed Sir Frederic Kenyon, K.C.B., to report how
these aims could best be realised, and he, after consulting very fully
with the relatives, representatives of the Services, religion and art,
and knowing the practical limitations, particularly in obtaining labour,
for carrying out such a vast undertaking, recommended that in each
cemetery there should stand a Cross of Sacrifice, and an altarlike Stone
of Remembrance, and that the headstones of the graves should be of
uniform shape and size. Stone crosses to succeed the temporary wooden
crosses were at first suggested, but crosses of the small size
necessitated by the nearness of the graves to each other do not allow
sufficient space for the men’s names and the inscriptions, and are also
by their shape too fragile and too subject to the action of frost and
weather for enduring use. Plain headstones, measuring 2 ft. 6 in. by 1
ft. 3 in., were therefore chosen, upon which the Cross or other
religious symbol of the dead man’s faith could be carved and his
Regimental badge fully displayed. The Regiments have been consulted as
to the designs of these badges, some of which have now been approved and
are ready for engraving as soon as experiments which are being carried
on have shown how to overcome the difficulties of dealing with such
numbers. In due time, then, wherever a man may be buried, from East
Africa to North Russia, his headstone will carry his Regimental badge,
identifiable the world over.
Besides the fighting forces, provision must be made for the graves of
the merchant-seamen and discharged men whose deaths were due to enemy
action, for Sisters and Nurses killed or died of wounds or disease, for
Labour units of all races, and, indeed, for all who have served in any
capacity in the war. The distinctive badges of these headstones are not
yet all decided upon.
[Illustration: ANOTHER WAR CEMETERY AS DESIGNED.]
[Illustration: THE CROSS OF SACRIFICE.]
[Illustration: THE STONE OF REMEMBRANCE.]
[Illustration: SPECIMEN OF A REGIMENTAL HEADSTONE.]
_Inscriptions, Registers, and Planning._
In addition to the name and rank upon the headstone, the Commission feel
that relatives should, if they wish, add a short inscription of their
own choice as an expression of personal feeling and affection. These
inscriptions will be at the relatives’ expense, and, to avoid unduly
crowding the stones with very small lettering, which, besides being
difficult to read, does not weather well, it has been found necessary to
restrict the length of the inscription to sixty-six letters.[A]
[A] In counting the sixty-six letters, the space between any two words
must be reckoned as one letter.
Every cemetery will keep registers of the dead buried there, and in
these registers it is hoped that it will be possible, with the
assistance of his kin, to enter the age, parentage, and birthplace of
each known man.
The planning and planting of the cemeteries must depend largely on their
site and the climate of the country, but it is proposed that, as a
general rule, the cemeteries should have buildings designed for
services, ceremonies, and shelter, where the register of that cemetery
will be kept under permanent safeguard. To recapitulate:--
1. For each Cemetery its Cross of Sacrifice and Stone of
Remembrance, the latter bearing the quotation (_Ecclesiasticus_ 44,
v. 14) “THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE”;
2. For each grave its enduring headstone, carved with the symbol of
the dead man’s faith, his name and rank, his Regimental badge, and
whatever text or inscription his relatives may add;
3. In the Cemetery building the register in which the man’s
birthplace, age, and parentage can be recorded and referred to.
_Memorials to the Missing._
This matter is naturally of the deepest concern to the relatives of
those whose bodies have never been recovered or identified, or whose
graves, once made, have been destroyed by later battles. Their number is
not small, and Sir Frederic Kenyon has suggested that the best way to
record their memory would be to place a tablet on the walls or cloisters
at the cemetery nearest to the spot where it is presumed they have lost
their lives. In the case of officers and men in the Flying Corps, the
place of whose death could not be known within many miles, the tablet
might be placed in the cemetery nearest to the camp from which they had
started on their last flight. But in any case relatives may be assured
that the dead who have no known resting-place will be made equal with
the others, and that each case will be dealt with upon full
consideration of its merits as regards the site and the place of the
memorial.
_Graves of Indian Troops._
The symbols of their faith will also be carved on the headstones of the
soldiers of the Indian Armies who fought beside their comrades from
England and throughout the Empire in France and Belgium in 1914-16; and
of the Indian Labour Corps who have since worked and taken the risks of
life behind the lines. A committee of the Commission has decided upon
the form that these symbols should take, and has further recommended
that a Mohammedan mosque and Hindu temple should be erected in France
for remembrance of the sacrifice made by Hindus and Mohammedans alike in
the war. The designs for these buildings have been submitted for
approval in India. In all such matters the treatment of the bodies of
these soldiers will be in strict conformity with the practice of their
religions, and will be carried out under the supervision of native
officers.
[Illustration: SPECIMEN OF A REGIMENTAL HEADSTONE.]
[Illustration: SPECIMEN OF A JEWISH HEADSTONE.]
_Treatment of Isolated Graves._
After so many years of fighting over densely populated and civilised
countries like France and Belgium, it is inevitable that there must be
single graves and groups in positions where, when the life of the land
goes forward again, they cannot be reached or tended. Some lie in what
were once town or village thoroughfares, and will be so again; others by
the side of railway stations and goods yards, houses or factories, in
arable or pasture fields, parks, gardens and the like. The objections to
leaving these graves where they are need not be dwelt upon. No
precautions save them from being encroached upon or obliterated in the
course of time. There is, moreover, a strong sentiment among all ranks
that such scattered graves look lonely, and the instinct of the Services
demands that those who fell by the wayside should be gathered in to rest
with the nearest main body of their companions. That is what the
Commission, with all due care and reverence, proposes to do.
_Removal of Bodies._
In view of the enormous number (over half a million) of our dead in
France alone, the removal of bodies to England would be impossible, even
were there a general desire for it. But the overwhelming majority of
relatives are content that their kin should lie--officers and men
together--in the countries that they have redeemed. The Allied nations,
too, have freely given their land to our dead for ever, and that offer
has been accepted by the Governments. To allow exhumation and removal in
the few cases where it has been suggested would, it seemed to the
Commission, be undesirable, if only on the principle of equality, and,
judging from what many gallant fighters have said and written before
they in their turn fell, a violation, in all but a few special cases, of
the desire of the dead themselves.
_Battle Memorials._
Memorials to commemorate the parts borne by particular armies,
divisions, or regiments in campaigns and battles, such as, to name only
a few, the Canadians at Ypres, the South Africans at Delville Wood, the
Australians at Amiens, the British at the breaking of the Hindenburg
line, will be advised upon by a fully representative military committee,
and it is to be hoped that the best art of the Empire will give its
services and advice in the designing of them.
_Suggestions from the Public._
But the work so far has only been blocked out, and there is room and
welcome for suggestions of every kind from the public throughout the
world, whose servants the Commission are. For example, it has been
suggested that the entrance to individual cemeteries should carry a text
or inscription, and it has been decided that monuments should be erected
to the dead whose graves are unknown, of a special form which has yet to
be settled. These are points, among others, upon which the Commission
would be grateful for expressions of opinion.
_The Progress of the Work._
Meantime, the long and difficult business of identification and
registration goes forward still on all fronts. The various architects to
whose charge the cemeteries have been allotted are preparing their
designs for the planting and the building required in France, and steps
are being taken to prepare dignified and characteristic designs for our
cemeteries in the East and elsewhere. All this can be effected in
reasonable time; but there is no possibility of expediting the delivery
of the headstones. More than half a million of these will be required,
and at present there is not labour enough in all the world to cut, carve
and letter them. While they are being made the wooden crosses will
stand, and, where necessary, will be renewed; the registers will be
filled and filed, and the cemeteries will be faithfully and reverently
tended.
London: PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE. To be
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