'Died-at-home' headstones

[withcall]

At what point were relatives of servicemen who died of wounds in the UK offered military headtones? In my town, there are several 1914-18 CWGC headstones in the borough cemetery, and also a handful of private headstones for men who died. There is also a redundant free church cemetery in the town where many 'died at home' men were buried. None of these ever had a CWGC headstone which has survived, but there is a CWGC plaque with their names on in the borough cemetery, which says that their graves have now been lost. Was it a question of how well off the family was? Ironically many of the private headstones are now in a bad way, while the CWGC headstones are in good nick.

[Terry Denham]

CWGC offered ALL relatives an official headstone no matter who they were. Total equality in death is the CWGC rule.

However, CWGC was not formed until 1917 and, initially, it was not charged with caring for graves in the UK. These were added later when their remit became 'universal'.

Also, the official headstone was not available until 1920 and, by then, many relatives had already erected a private stone (though they were still offered a CWGC official stone).

The difference being that CWGC is not obliged by its Royal Charter to care for private stones whereas it must care for the official stones in perpetuity. If a private stone is not longer readable, they will try to get permission to erect an official stone, however. Permission is not always granted.

Some local authorities will not permit CWGC stones on common graves and so the names have to go on a screen wall in the cemetery. Also some cemeteries did not maintain good records and some unmarked graves became 'lost'. Some cemeteries were also closed and the graves deemed 'unmaintainable' and so a Special Memorial (to which you refer) with the names is erected in another nearby cemetery.