We'll miss our corners of a foreign field
By John Keegan
The delay in holding inquests on British servicemen killed in Iraq or
Afghanistan is entirely unprecedented, brought about by the repatriation
of remains to this country.
The practice began during the Falklands and came about because one
family insisted on a repatriation. Until then the Commonwealth War
Graves Commission had successfully established the principle that
British war dead should be buried and commemorated as near the spot
where they died as possible. No inquests were held because the cause of
death was evident.
There had been a demand for repatriation and for private commemoration
during the First World War, but Fabian Ware, the first director of War
Graves, opposed both practices. He was influenced by the enormous number
of war deaths - but also by what he discovered of personal and family
sentiment.
Repatriation was, for financial reasons, open only to richer families,
and several tried to bring the bodies of dead sons or husbands home.
Inquiry revealed, however, that officers, whose families were most
likely to demand repatriation, expressed a strong desire to be buried
with their men. Chaplains reported a mood of "the fellowship of death"
among fighting soldiers, which pervaded all ranks.
Thus grew up the principles on which the War Graves Commission policy
was founded. It laid down that those who died together should be buried
together - though, out of respect for soldierly sacrifice, each casualty
should be individually commemorated, in a separate grave or by a
separate inscription on a joint memorial if burial were not possible.
cont'd....
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