Latest news with #CommonwealthWarGraves
Telegraph
3 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
Dear Richard Madeley: ‘I've already honoured my father's memory – I don't want another trip down memory lane'
Dear Richard, My father died in the Allied landings at Anzio when I was a baby. Last year was the 40th anniversary of the battle, and we went to see his grave in the small Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery above the town. (We also visited the rather more lavish US military cemetery at neighbouring Nettuno.) I'm glad I went before it was too late (I am 82). However, I don't remember my father, and while I did not have the profoundly moving experience one might have hoped for, I responded with a show of emotion that was not entirely feigned. Now, though, my wife and two daughters have proposed another trip to Italy this autumn, and then next year to north Africa, retracing Dad's wartime footsteps. I love Italy but while I am blessed with good health I find travel tiring these days. I don't really want to do this, but I have somehow given my family the impression that I am more invested in my father's army career than I am. Should I politely demur, or go along with this plan? – Mark, Surrey Dear Mark, Your emotions are being hijacked here. Not with any malign intent or deliberate, wilful insensitivity. But with a kind of cheerful insouciance. Your family are keen to retrace your father's footsteps through the war because they're genuinely curious. And because of your own partly feigned enthusiasm for visiting the Anzio beachhead where he fought and died, they assume you feel the same. Well, you don't. And there's absolutely no shame in that. You've honoured the memory of your dad by going all the way to Anzio – a horrific if ultimately victorious episode in our wartime history – you don't have anything to prove to anyone (not that you did in the first place). My advice is to be absolutely straight with your relatives. Tell them that your trip to Italy fulfilled all your needs and desires to pay tribute to your dad. Wish them well if they still want to cover his old tracks. Ask them to send photos from their iPhones. But firmly explain that you'll be staying home in the garden to raise a glass to him as and when those pictures arrive. Do what's right for you, Mark. You're 82, for heaven's sake!
South Wales Argus
20-05-2025
- General
- South Wales Argus
Chris Evans MP on CWGC appointment and importance of remembrance
For those who are not familiar with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), the organisation was founded more than 100 years ago in 1917 to commemorate the fallen during the First World War. Since then, it has expanded to include the more than 1.7 million men and women from across the commonwealth who died during the two world wars. The CWGC has a global impact. It works on behalf of the governments of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India and South Africa in its mission. Some of the most important activities of the CWGC are to mark, record, and maintain military graves and sites of commemoration across the commonwealth. In total, it looks after more than 12,000 sites across at least 150 countries and territories. The reason I am so honoured by this appointment is because of how important it is we remember the fallen over the two world wars, across the Commonwealth. In Caerphilly, Penyrheol cemetery alone contains 19 war graves from the First World War, and 28 from the Second World War. There are many others. Only recently we came together to remember and commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, holding a two minute silence in respect and reverence for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. The events that were held across the country and locally demonstrate the strength of our commitment to honouring and remembering our war dead. War is a terrible thing, and we can only truly appreciate that by diligently reminding ourselves of the almost unbearable costs of conflict. It is also important that we ensure our children and young people learn and understand the sacrifices their forebears made for them, to ensure the freedoms we all enjoy to this day. The CWGC runs many educational projects including a virtual Wall of Remembrance, and regular live talks hosted online on many different topics. They also hold events and talks that explore the important contributions made by commonwealth forces in the two world wars, including in the Far East as part of the 75th anniversary of VJ Day. I am looking forward to working as a Commonwealth War Graves Commissioner over the coming years, and I feel the profound sense of duty that it brings. I would encourage everyone to visit the CWGC website to find out more about its important work, and how to support it. The website can be found at: Chris Evans is MP for Caerphilly.
BBC News
11-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Brookwood Military Cemetery is UK's largest war graves site
"I think it's really important that all of these graves are visited and that people know their stories."That's what Megan Maltby of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission told Radio Surrey about the largest war cemetery in Military Cemetery, which covers a 37-acre site near Woking, is home to 1,601 burials for people who died in World War One and 3,476 for people who died in World War nationalities of people laid to rest at the Surrey site include Commonwealth countries, wartime allies, as well as Germans and Italians. The land began as a civilian cemetery in the 19th Century but expanded into a military cemetery after WW1 broke of the youngest people known to be buried at the site is South African soldier Thomas Knowles, who Ms Maltby said is believed to be "part of a musical band that was travelling with the South African army".The 15-year-old died of influenza "like so many others in 1918", she Military Cemetery is also the resting place of 27 Indian soldiers, whose graves were moved from a different cemetery nearby in 1968 after vandalism incidents. George Cross recipient memorialised Among the names commemorated on the Brookwood 1939-1945 Memorial is Anglo-French spy Violette Szabo, who worked on behalf of the UK's Special Operations Executive in Allies trained Szabo as a field agent and sent her to France during its occupation to feed back useful Maltby said: "She was with some resistance fighters at the time they were stopped by a German patrol."She was captured by the Germans, she was interrogated, she was tortured, she was sadly put to death at a concentration camp."Szabo is one of only four women to be awarded the George Cross after she was posthumously given the gallantry McKenna portrayed the spy, who married a member of the French Resistance, in 1958 film Carve Her Name with Pride.
The Guardian
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
UK marks VE Day 80th anniversary with large crowds and military pomp
As Big Ben chimed at noon and with the Cenotaph, the symbol of sacrifice, draped in the union flag for the first time since its unveiling in 1920, the UK marked the 80th anniversary of VE Day with military pomp before large crowds who had gathered in central London. Buckingham Palace may have served as the centrepiece of Monday's spectacle before Thursday's anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. At the event's heart, however, were the VVIP second world war veterans, those remaining few who bore actual witness then and who today serve to remind. Back in 1945, Britain allowed itself a brief period of rejoicing on VE Day with overwhelming relief and optimism at Germany's surrender after long wartime years of deprivation and huge loss of life on all sides. On Monday, the first of four days of commemorations, tribute was paid with a 1,300-strong military procession, a flypast, marching bands, massed pipes and drums, and youth cadets. The procession set off from beneath the bronze gaze of Churchill's statue in Parliament Square and ended outside the palace. Elsewhere, street parties were held across the UK. Thousands crowded on to the Mall, many waving red, white and blue flags. Watching from a dais on the Queen Victoria Memorial were the king, queen, senior royals and the prime minister, Keir Starmer, sitting alongside those who had served in the war and who were wrapped up both in their memories and against the spring chill. As Big Ben fell silent, the actor Timothy Spall boomed aloud words from Churchill's victory speech beginning: 'My dear friends, this is your hour.' Alan Kennett, a 100-year-old Normandy veteran, then started the parade as he was handed the Commonwealth War Graves torch for peace. In 1945, Kennett, from Lichfield, was in Celle, near Belsen, in a cinema with other men in his unit, when they were told the war had ended. 'The whole place erupted and of course it became one great party,' he recalled. UK armed forces personnel were joined by representatives from Commonwealth and Nato allies. A detachment of Ukrainian military, selected from the UK armed forces' training programme for Ukrainian recruits, offered a reminder that while VE Day marked peace, war continues today in many corners of the world. A Buckingham Palace tea party for 30 second world war veterans aged from 98 to 104, and about 20 evacuees and others who lived through the war, was being hosted by the king and queen. Those invited included a 98-year-old former prisoner of war, a 99-year-old who served in the Desert Rats and took part in the D-day landings, and a 100-year-old woman who worked in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), known as Churchill's secret army. A flypast of 23 historic and current aircraft, including a Lancaster Bomber and the famous Red Arrows streaming red, white and blue, flew over the crowd in the Mall and the royals watching from the palace balcony to conclude Monday's official commemorations. Among those invited to the palace tea party was Joyce Wilding, 100, who enlisted at 18 into the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and worked in the SOE. Recalling VE Day, she said: 'We went to Piccadilly where there was a stream of people singing and dancing. We joined a crocodile and did the palais glide down Piccadilly. There were soldiers up lamp-posts, it was extraordinary.' Bernard Morgan, a 101-year-old RAF D-day veteran who worked as a codebreaker, received a secret telegraph message two days before VE Day that read: 'German war now over, surrender effective sometime tomorrow.' When it was officially confirmed on 8 May, he and his comrades lit a huge bonfire and celebrated until late into the night. He said: 'It's so important that we make the most of these opportunities to remember what happened, not just to celebrate the achievement but also to ensure that such horrors never happen again.'
