British War Memorial Project

The British War Memorial Project is a volunteer project set up in 2001 by Richard Howman to document the graves and memorials of British service personnel from 1914 to the present day, including those killed in recent conflicts and peacekeeping operations.

You can search the site by surname to find a picture of a headstone, memorial or Commonwealth war grave. We warmly welcome new volunteers or anyone who wishes to submit information to the site.

Aim

The Project exists to create a photo archive of the graves and memorials to British servicemen and servicewomen who have fallen in service since the beginning of the First World War to the present day. The project moves forward through volunteers who photograph the headstones and memorials, and through relatives of the service personnel who contribute information to the site.

It seems that within a few years, memories and records of the lives of the members of our Armed Forces have often slipped into obscurity. In certain areas, cemeteries have fallen into such a state of decay that it is sometimes difficult even to enter them safely.

The project's mission is to see that their names are not forgotten. Without the help of dedicated volunteers the project would not exist.

Volunteers

There are more than 900 active volunteers throughout the UK and the rest of the world but more are needed to fulfil this massive project, especially County Co-ordinators like WOWEA Steve Rogers stationed in Portsmouth Naval base. He is also the Project Co-ordinator for the UK and Belgium, and is presentlyphotographing over 7,000 graves in Hampshire with a band of enthusiastic volunteers many of whom are ex-servicemen.

The TASK

Of the 1.7 million men and women killed during the two World Wars, 925,000 are in marked graves scattered around 2,500 cemeteries worldwide. There are already ongoing projects like the Maple Leaf Legacy photographing all of the Canadian war graves and similar ones for the Australians and New Zealanders. The British War Memorial Project will cover all British graves. That said, we all help out each other, as it would be pointless photographing just a proportion of the Commonwealth graves in a cemetery knowing that another project was still missing some from that location.

Project so far

Over 500,000 digital photographs have been taken so far and are now being processed to make them accessible on the website. At any one time there are between 10 and 40 requests for photographs or information from family members. The site receives several million visits every year and is proving very popular amongst servicemen and women's relatives.

Requirements

Volunteers are still very much required throughout the UK and elsewhere – especially anyone based in Northern Europe, where the large majority of British graves are to be found.

As the process of uploading pictures to the site is relatively time-consuming, it is preferable that all photos are digital to save scanning time. As the project is purely voluntary and non-profitmaking, the cost of processing thousands of photographs would be prohibitive.

Materially, any donations of digital cameras would be most welcome. So too would a laptop to enable downloading in the field – many larger cemeteries can have over a thousand graves, which fills the memory cards up quite quickly!

Quote from Richard Howman, Project Director

"Not a single day goes by that I do not find this project intensely moving. I hope that you find something similar here for yourself, and warmly encourage anyone to contribute to the site."

Richard Howman BA (Hons)
Project Director

For further information please look at the site on www.britishwargraves.org.uk