Mark Posted 15 April , 2003 Share Posted 15 April , 2003 One thing that ocurred to me over the weekend was, what happens to the sheets in the vistors book? Who decides when to remove them and what happens to them once they are removed? Does anyone at the CWGC look at them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hill 60 Posted 15 April , 2003 Share Posted 15 April , 2003 Mark - I don't know the answer to your question. I assume that the CWGC remove them when they have filled up or become tatty. There is also the problem of theft . Last year my dad and I visited his uncle's grave at the Menin Road South Cemetery. Age has taken it's toll on our memory & we couldn't remember what he wrote in the Visitor's Book. I asked the local CWGC if they could find out and they happily went off to look for me. Unfortunatly, some little scumbag had decided to nick the book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted 15 April , 2003 Author Share Posted 15 April , 2003 Hi Lee I was just wondering as at a couple of the smaller cemeteries I visted one had 3 or 4 pages covering the last 2 years and at another the sheets had recently been removed. Both I had visited over a year ago and I remembered that they had a similar number of entries at that time. Idle curiosity really. The register at Hibers Trench Cemetery at Wancourt had been pinched when I was there on Sunday But I did notice quite a few new registers at cemeteries around Ypres The register for the Memorial to the Missing at Pozieres was of the old printed style with brown covers rather than the more modern green covered ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted 15 April , 2003 Share Posted 15 April , 2003 Sometime ago in a different place it was told/alleged that the CWGC simply destroys them. What else should they do with it? Apparently they are not happy about that themselves because when a research project from the Historical in Péronne wanted them to do statistical research they received a great heap, with the CWGC sending these things long after the project was stopped. Regards, Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conor Dodd Posted 15 April , 2003 Share Posted 15 April , 2003 As a matter of interest how long ago did the CWGC start putting visitors books by the gates of cemeteries ?? Conor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Denham Posted 15 April , 2003 Share Posted 15 April , 2003 Conor The registers were initially produced in the 1920s/30s with the first for Le Treport coming out in 1920 before the final cut-off date for casualties. The cemeteries were designed to have these records available for visitors although their primary use was as remembrance documents for next-of-kin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Reed Posted 16 April , 2003 Share Posted 16 April , 2003 I was under the impression that the CWGC gave all the Somme cemetery pages used up to the Historial in Peronne for their archives. I know a researcher who looked at them quite recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conor Dodd Posted 16 April , 2003 Share Posted 16 April , 2003 Do the registers in Peronne go back to the 20's/30's ? Conor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Denham Posted 16 April , 2003 Share Posted 16 April , 2003 I believe the pages being referred to at Peronne are from the visitor books and not the registers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Reed Posted 17 April , 2003 Share Posted 17 April , 2003 Correct - and they only date back to the late 1990s when I believe this practice started. I suspect all previous visitors books were not kept by IWGC or CWGC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenwoodman Posted 17 April , 2003 Share Posted 17 April , 2003 Modris Ekstein "Memory and the Great War" in Hew Strachan (Ed.) The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War is in part based on the entries in the CWGC cemetery visitors' books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conor Dodd Posted 17 April , 2003 Share Posted 17 April , 2003 I believe the pages being referred to at Peronne are from the visitor books and not the registers. Sorry mistype on my behalf it should read visitor books. Thanks for the reply ! Conor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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