Contemporary grave visit

This extract from Overton Parish Magazine, August 1922, gives a contemporary account of the development of Cemeteries by the Imperial War Graves Commission (now Commonwealth War Graves Commission).

 

BRITISH WAR GRAVES

It may be some comfort to those who have husbands, sons, or relations buried in France or Belgium to know from eye witnesses what is the condition of the Cemeteries in which the bodies of their dear ones rest. The Rector and Mrs. Turner had the privilege on Wednesday, June 21st, of visiting the Cemetery in which their own son is buried, and also of seeing some ten or twelve other Cemeteries in the Ypres Salient. None of these are yet completed, but in every case the Cemeteries were beautifully laid out and in perfect order, with flowers on every grave and the grass kept short like a lawn. At the head of each grave there is a temporary wooden cross, painted white, bearing the man’s number, rank, name and Regiment. British Gardeners are employed to attend to the flowers, grass, hedges, etc., each week, with the result that the War Cemeteries are much more beautifully kept than the average Country Churchyard in England, and the graves receive as much care as the most devoted relations could give.