The War Graves Photographic Project
The War Graves Photographic Project original aim was to photograph every war grave, individual memorial, Ministry of Defence grave, and family memorial of serving military personnel from WWI to the present day. However, due to its popularity the project has now extended the remit to cover all nationalities and military conflicts and make these available within a searchable database. These memorials are all over the world where British, Commonwealth and other nations servicemen and women are buried or commemorated.
Working as a joint venture with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and assisting The Office of Australian War Graves,and the Veterans Affairs Canada and the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage this enables families, scholars and researchers to obtain, via the CWGC or TWGPP websites, a copies of the photograph of a grave or memorial entry, which for many older people it is impossible to visit due to the location and ability to travel. This service has only been made possible through the efforts of a dedicated group of volunteers, from all walks of life, who feel the need to remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice and who realise the importance for families to see where their loved ones are laid to rest or commemorated. This emulates the CWGC ethos to ‘Remember in Perpetuity’.
The project has a website with a searchable database. Copies of archived photographs (currently around 1,836,379 as of 5th May 2016) can be obtained, for a nominal administration fee, on request to the project.
The site has become very popular so it is now including war and other service graves from conflicts earlier than 1914 and World War I. Submissions of images from anywhere in the world where military personnel were based or conflicts like the Anglo-South African War are now being welcomed.
The Project has been mentioned by a British Parliamentary Early Day Motion[1] and is linked to the parliamentary website.
Regular visits are organised where at weekends volunteers as a group visit a war cemetery to carry out a photographic and cataloguing exercise. A group visit to the Netherlands in May 2008 achieved a further 18000 images and a trip to Gallipoli in September 2008 completed all those required (35,000) on the Turkish peninsula.
On the Naval front we commemorate the Battle of Jutland in May and this weekend the Easter uprising is remembered in Ireland and in which many died. It is good to know that reconciliation has taken place since those days a hundred years ago. Thousands of people are expected to line the streets of Dublin for the parade on Easter Sunday.
This year includes the big centennial anniversaries like the numerous individual battles that made up ‘The Somme’. The likes of Delville Wood, High Wood, Pozieres, Thiepval and Ancre Heights to name but a few.
The project was awarded a commendation by the Duke of Kent, the president of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, in May 2013.[2]
References
- ↑ Early day motion 1230 - WAR GRAVES PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECT on www.parliament.uk
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External links
- TWGPP on Facebook
- The War Graves Photographic Project
- War Graves and Memorial Project
- War Graves & Battlefields Heritage - All-Party Parliamentary Group
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission
- The Office of Australian War Graves
- New Zealand Ministry of Heritage and Culture
- Royal Naval Patrol Service Association
