The War Graves Photographic Project

The War Graves Photographic Project original aim was to photograph every war grave, individual memorial, Ministry of Defence grave, and family memorial of serving military personnel from WWI to the present day. However, due to its popularity the project has now extended the remit to cover all nationalities and military conflicts and make these available within a searchable database. These memorials are all over the world where British, Commonwealth and other nations servicemen and women are buried or commemorated.

Working as a joint venture with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and assisting The Office of Australian War Graves,and the Office of Australian War Graves, Canadian Veterans Affairs and the New Zealand Ministry of Heritage and Culture this enables families, scholars and researchers to obtain, via the CWGC or TWGPP websites, a copies of the photograph of a grave or memorial entry, which for many older people it is impossible to visit due to the location and ability to travel. This service has only been made possible through the efforts of a dedicated group of volunteers, from all walks of life, who feel the need to remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice and who realise the importance for families to see where their loved ones are laid to rest or commemorated. This emulates the CWGC ethos to ‘Remember in Perpetuity’.

The project has a website with a searchable database. Copies of archived photographs (currently around 1,786,211 as of 6 October 2013) can be obtained, for a fee, on request to the project.

The site has become very popular so it is now including war and other service graves from conflicts earlier than 1914 and World War I. Submissions of images from anywhere in the world where military personnel were based or conflicts like the Anglo-South African War are now being welcomed.

The Project has been mentioned by a British Parliamentary Early Day Motion and is linked to the parliamentary website.

Regular visits are organised where at weekends volunteers as a group visit a war cemetery to carryout a photographic and cataloging exercise. A group visit to the Netherlands in May 2008 achieved a further 18000 images and a trip to Gallipoli in September 2008 completed all those required (35,000) on the Turkish peninsula.

During March 2011 The Royal Naval Patrol Service Association have submitted a new set of images for Lowestoft Naval Memorial as part of a plan to upgrade image quality of the archives using later camera technology wherever necessary.

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WAR GRAVES PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECT RECEIVES ROYAL RECOGNITION

A volunteer group that has sourced and archived over 1.7 million photographs of war graves from around the world will be honoured by His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent at St. James’ Palace on 23 May 2013. The Duke, who is President of The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, will present Steve Rogers, Co-ordinator of The War Graves Photographic Project, with a President’s Commendation in recognition of the outstanding contribution to the work and aims of The Commission. The Commission’s Director General, Alan Pateman-Jones, said: “The Project provides a valuable service to families, scholars and researchers seeking to obtain a copy of the photograph of a grave or memorial – virtually anywhere in the world. “This service has only been made possible through the efforts of a dedicated group of 900 volunteers, from all walks of life, who recognise the importance for families to see where their loved ones are laid to rest or commemorated. In recognition of this outstanding contribution to the work and aims of the Commission the Project is awarded the President’s Commendation.” Steve Rogers from The War Graves Photographic Project said that it was an honour to accept this award on behalf of all the volunteers around the world who have contributed to the Project over the years. “What initially started out as a hobby has turned into an immense archive of over 1.76 million images which has only been achieved by the effort of many people who felt the need to become involved,” he added.