The Commemoration and Care of First World War Dead Buried in the United Kingdom through the lens of the Organisational Culture of the Imperial War Graves Commission, 1917-1939

This thesis explores the commemoration and care of First World War dead in the United Kingdom by the Imperial (later known as Commonwealth) War Graves Commission. While much research has previously discussed the work of the Commission within the context of its work overseas, and visits to the battlefields have increased in popularity over the decades since the conflict ended, the graves of those buried on home soil have received little to no attention from both the public and academics. The thesis aims to challenge the preconceived notions surrounding the work of the Commission and the broader historiography of Remembrance in the United Kingdom through highlighting the ways within which the memorialisation practices found here both conform to and contrast with the styles utilised at overseas cemeteries. Furthermore, the thesis highlights the adaptability that the Commission had to utilise in order to extend its remit to United Kingdom-based war graves, particularly when considering the moral, financial and legal involvement of the bereaved. Across the five chapters that formulate the main body of the text, various aspects of the Commission’s work will be explained. This includes the organisational, legal and administrative histories of the organisation in addition to the impact, both emotionally and spatially, that these sites of memory have had on the broader rites and rituals associated with Remembrance. In contrast to current beliefs surrounding this topic, the thesis highlights that the interactions between the public and these sites of memory conform more towards attitudes associated with civilianised attitudes to grief and bereavement, rather than being completely omitted from Remembrance ceremonies from the outset. Moreover, the thesis highlights the influence of other similar organisations on the work of the Commission in relation to its task in Britain. Utilising a case study of the creation of Cannock Chase German Cemetery in the 1950s and 1960s, the thesis highlights that the Commission adapted its own practices based on the precedents set by other similar organisations. This raises further questions surrounding the challenges of ownership over war graves, and how the legal and moral impact of these queries often made the Commission’s task in the United Kingdom unique when compared to the cemeteries and memorials in its care overseas.