[1][4] The commission operates through the continued financial support of the member states: United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa.

[6] At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Fabian Ware, a director of the Rio Tinto Company, found that he was too old, at age 45, to join the British Army.

He arrived in France in September 1914 and whilst there was struck by the lack of any official mechanism for documenting or marking the location of graves of those who had been killed and felt compelled to create an organisation within the Red Cross for this purpose.

The French government agreed under the condition that cemeteries respected certain dimensions,[11] were accessible by public road, were in the vicinity of medical aid stations and were not too close to towns or villages.

[12][13] In March 1915, the commission, with the support of the Red Cross, began to dispatch photographic prints and cemetery location information in answer to the requests.

Following a suggestion by the British Army, the government appointed the National Committee for the Care of Soldiers' Graves in January 1916, with Edward, Prince of Wales agreeing to serve as president.

[20] A committee under Frederic Kenyon, Director of the British Museum, presented a report to the Commission in November 1918 detailing how it envisioned the development of the cemeteries.

[26][25] Sir James Remnant started the debate, followed by speeches by William Burdett-Coutts in favour of the commission's principles and Robert Cecil speaking for those desiring repatriation and opposing uniformity of grave markers.

The Commission initially decided to build 12 monuments on which to commemorate the missing; each memorial being located at the site of an important battle along the Western Front.

[53] The wider scale of the Second World War, coupled with manpower shortages and unrest in some countries, meant that the construction and restoration programmes took much longer.

Zehrensdorf Indian Cemetery in Germany was unkempt after the end of the Second World War and until the German reunification because it was located in an area occupied by Russian forces and was not entirely rebuilt until 2005.

Two-hundred and fifty British and Australian bodies were excavated from five mass graves which were interred in the newly constructed Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery.

[66][67] The commission is currently responsible for the continued commemoration of 1.7 million deceased Commonwealth military service members in 153 countries and approximately 67,000 civilians who died as a result of enemy action during the Second World War.

Death in service included not only those killed in combat but other causes such as those that died in training accidents, air raids and due to disease such as the 1918 flu pandemic.

The Assistant Architects were: George Esselmont Gordon Leith, Wilfred Clement Von Berg, Charles Henry Holden (who in 1920 became a Principal Architect), William Harrison Cowlishaw, William Bryce Binnie, George Hartley Goldsmith, Frank Higginson, Arthur James Scott Hutton, Noel Ackroyd Rew, and John Reginald Truelove.

[77][78] Together with Maufe, the other Principal Architects appointed during and after the Second World War were Hubert Worthington, Louis de Soissons, Philip Hepworth and Colin St Clair Oakes.

There is also an absence of any paving between the headstone rows which is intended to make the cemetery feel like a traditional walled garden where visitors could experience a sense of peace.

[97] However, Carter and Jackson argue that the uniform aesthetics are designed to evoke a positive experience which deliberately masks and sanitises the nature of the war deaths.

[106] Each headstone contains the national emblem or regimental badge, rank, name, unit, date of death and age of each casualty inscribed above an appropriate religious symbol and a more personal dedication chosen by relatives.

Originally, the horticultural concept was to create an environment where visitors could experience a sense of peace in a setting, in contrast to traditionally bleak graveyards.

Recommendations given by Arthur William Hill, the assistant director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew enabled the commission to develop cemetery layouts and architectural structures that took into account the placement of suitable plant life.

Sir Edwin Lutyens furthered his long-standing working relationship with horticulturist Gertrude Jekyll, whose devotion to traditional cottage garden plants and roses greatly influenced the appearance of the cemeteries.

[119] Low-growing plants are chosen for areas immediately in front of headstones, ensuring that inscriptions are not obscured and preventing soil from splashing back during rain.

When many cemeteries are concentrated within a limited area, like along the Western Front or Gallipoli peninsula, mobile teams of gardeners operate from a local base.

[133] In December 2013, it was discovered that Second Lieutenant Philip Frederick Cormack, who was previously commemorated on the Arras Flying Services Memorial, had in fact been buried in a French military cemetery in Machelen, East Flanders in Belgium.

[135] As of July 2022, the In From The Cold Project has so far identified 7,255 individuals with either unmarked graves or names missing from the Roll of Honour maintained at Westminster Abbey.

[139] The Commission believes that graffiti and damage to stonework are usually the work of young people, noting that the number of incidents increases when schoolchildren are on school holidays.

[140] Metal theft is also a problem: determined thieves target the bronze swords from the Cross of Sacrifice, which are now replaced with replicas made of fibreglass.

[142] Vandals defaced the central memorial of the Étaples Military Cemetery in northern France with anti-British and anti-American graffiti on 20 March 2003 immediately after the beginning of the Iraq War.

[143] On 9 May 2004, thirty-three headstones were demolished in the Gaza cemetery, which contains 3,691 graves,[144] allegedly in retaliation for the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.