Empires of the Dead: How One Man’s Vision Led to the Creation of WWI’s War Graves

Empires of the Dead: How One Man’s Vision Led to the Creation of WWI’s War Graves
David Crane

Before WWI, little provision was made for the burial of the war dead. Soldiers were often unceremoniously dumped in a mass grave; officers shipped home to be buried in local cemeteries.The great cemeteries of WWI came about as a result of the efforts of one inspired visionary. In 1914, Fabian Ware, at 45, was too old to enlist. Instead, he joined the Red Cross, working on the frontline in France. There he was horrified by the ignominious end to the lives of many of the soldiers who, buried hastily, were often lost as the battlelines moved backward and forward over the same ground. He recorded their identity and the position of their graves, and his work was quickly officially recognised, with a Graves Registration Commission being set up. As reports of their work became public, the Commission was flooded with letters from grieving relatives around the world.Critically acclaimed author David Crane gives a profoundly moving account of the creation of the great citadels to the dead, which involved leading figures of the day, including Kipling, Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll. It is the story of both cynical political motivation, as governments sought to justify the sacrifices made, as well as the outpouring of great personal grief, following the ‘war to end all wars’.

EMPIRES OF THE DEAD

How One Man’s Vision Led to the Creation of WWI’s War Graves

DAVID CRANE

CONTENTS

COVER (#ucfd3d542-2d1f-50e1-8100-c776c7cb401f)

TITLE PAGE (#ua92ba373-7f6a-58c3-894c-02bfea069432)

MAPS (#ua213d35c-2d20-5fe2-87a2-475a4f43ee09)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (#u90e8f50c-8a89-57b6-94e1-12745eb1f7e6)

PROLOGUE (#u9943917d-8ebb-50d0-b3a7-b82d6946bf36)

1. The Making of a Visionary (#u3d91d5e8-1bfd-56c8-b871-2572f874a1a2)

2. The Mobile Unit (#u90630609-93e9-5c8e-9606-05d6ec22a8a8)

3. With an Eye to the Future (#u13e30a33-cb9b-526c-91d1-e058ae7ecffd)

4. Consolidation (#ua38fe598-c07e-56d3-98ec-7d6a89312107)

5. The Imperial War Graves Commission (#u11ba5a76-0827-56d7-8189-c6a874517589)

6. Kenyon (#u24cd8484-7ca9-569b-a312-9088c604689b)

7. Opposition (#u821bb2ad-e87b-5837-8471-74176a858aa5)

8. The Task (#u250b4878-bb9f-5383-9701-19c5599e40c2)

9. Completion (#u50d76f78-00ba-5d5f-8f1d-5fcbbd06a21c)

10. Keeping the Faith (#u7d444554-951c-5209-909f-cd0b8f232ed8)

PICTURE SECTION (#u6d96585f-3b39-5130-ac8e-8866e72cb381)

FOOTNOTES (#u66c4a3e0-c534-592e-8ae9-987dc47c5c12)

NOTES (#ua632fd6b-31cf-5177-9f2a-81c30ef14472)

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY (#u5b407dde-95cc-508a-8285-47f09f959894)

INDEX (#u9d2a2383-44ba-5007-a08b-562bd4ae7523)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (#u26d9ac6e-9c4e-5f66-a6ed-f01052396aaa)

ALSO BY DAVID CRANE (#ud2509d61-add2-550a-b7bb-234f590c8ade)

COPYRIGHT (#u12df1e2c-b376-57b9-be5e-552fb43ab68c)

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER (#ucc20a7c5-fc61-5dcf-a7e5-595e1baca83b)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (#ulink_2b00e832-784c-52eb-b10c-3a6d0593ef60)

1. Equestrian Monument to Sir John Hawkwood by Paolo Uccello, 1436, fresco transferred to canvas, post restoration (Duomo, Florence, Italy / The Bridgeman Art Library)

2. A soldier salutes at a grave prepared for the remains of New Zealand soldiers killed during the Dardanelles campaign at Chunuk Bair on 8 August 1915 (© Imperial War Museum, Q 14340)

3. Prince of Wales with Fabian Ware and Edwin Lutyens at the unveiling of Lutyens’s Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval on 1 August 1932 (courtesy Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

4. Vendresse Cemetery, France (courtesy Honor Clerk)

5. Rudyard Kipling and his son John on the yacht Bantam, c.1910 (Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library)

6. Caricature depicting a confrontation between Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker by William H. Nicholls, c.1914 (courtesy RIBA Library Drawings & Archives Collections)

7. Charles Holden by Francis Dodd, oil on canvas (© The Art Workers’ Guild Trustees Limited, London, UK / The Bridgeman Art Library)

8. The main entrance to the Serre Road Cemetery, No. 2, France (© Maurice Savage /Alamy)

9. Serre Road Cemetery, No. 2, France (© Maurice Savage / Alamy)

10. Etaples Cemetery, France (courtesy Honor Clerk)

11. ‘The Cemetery, Etaples, 1919’by Sir John Lavery, 1919, oil on canvas

12. The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, France, c.1935 (© Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

13. Stonemason hand-engraving a Canadian headstone destined for a cemetery in France (courtesy Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

14. Ypres, Belgium in ruins, 1919 (Photo by W. L. King)

15. ‘Menin Gateat Midnight’ by Will Longstaff, 1927, oil on canvas (courtesy Australian War Memorial)

16. Reginald Blomfield by James Jebusa Shannon, 1915, oil on canvas (courtesy RIBA Library Drawings & Archives Collections)

17. Inscription of names at the Menin Gate, Belgium (© Tim Bekaert)

18. Lone Pine Cemetery, Turkey (© Universal Images Group / DeAgostini / Alamy)

19. Funeral of a St John’s Ambulance Brigade nursing sister, Annie Bain, at Etaples (© Popperfoto / Getty Images)

20. Headstone of nursing sister A. W. Bain (courtesy Honor Clerk)

21. ‘Mourning Parents’ sculpture by Käthe Kollwitz at Vladslo Cemetery, Germany (© DavidCrossland / Alamy)

22. Verdun Cemetery, France (© Jean-Pol Grandmont)

23. Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium (Photograph by Brian Harris for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission © 2006)

24. Funeral of the Unknown Warrior, 11 November 1920 (© Topical Press Agency / Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

25. A sketch of the proposed design for the Cenotaph with explanatory notes by Edwin Lutyens (© The Artist’s Estate; image© Imperial War Museum, Art.IWM ART 16377 3)

26. Unveiling of the Cenotaph, 11 November 1920 (© Imperial War Museum, Q 31513)

27. ‘The Resurrection of the Soldiers’, wall paintingat Sandham Memorial Chapel by Stanley Spencer, 1923–7 (© The Estateof Stanley Spencer 2013. All rights reserved DACS; image ©National Trust Photographic Library / A C Cooper / The Bridgeman Art Library)

While every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced herein, the publishers would like to apologise for any omissions and would be pleased to incorporate missing acknowledgements in future editions.

PROLOGUE (#ulink_1dd76fba-2f03-566b-93b6-792b2e3e3a04)