List of Commonwealth War Graves Commission World War I memorials to the missing in Belgium and France information

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) aims to commemorate the UK and Commonwealth dead of the World Wars, either by maintaining a war grave in a cemetery, or where there is no known grave, by listing the dead on a memorial to the missing. This is a listing of those memorials maintained solely or jointly by the CWGC that commemorate by name the British and Commonwealth dead from the Western Front during World War I whose bodies were not recovered, or whose remains could not be identified.^[1] In addition to those listed here, there are numerous CWGC memorials to the missing from other battlefields around the world during the war, which are not listed here, most notably the memorials at Gallipoli, and the memorials to those lost at sea and in the air. There are also memorials to the missing from other combatant nations on the Western Front, especially those of Germany and France, but only the CWGC-maintained memorials are listed here.^[2]

Although listing the names of dead soldiers on memorials had started with the Boer Wars, this practice was only systematically adopted after World War I, with the establishment of the Imperial War Graves Commission, which was later renamed the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Due to the rapid movement of forces in the early stages of the war, many of the casualties of the initial World War I battles had no known grave, and were instead commemorated after the war on 'memorials to the missing'. In later battles, the intensity of the fighting sometimes meant that bodies could not be recovered or identified until much later.^[3] The highest number of casualties occurred on the Western Front in France and Belgium. In total, over 20 separate CWGC or national memorials to the missing of the Western Front were designed and built. They were commissioned and unveiled over a period of around 15 years from the early 1920s to 1938, when the last of the planned memorials was unveiled. The numbers listed on the memorials reduces over time as remains are discovered, identified, and buried in a war grave, with the name removed from the memorial where it was listed, but over 300,000 war dead are still commemorated by these memorials to the missing.^[4]

^ Some of those named on memorials to the missing will have been buried as "unknowns", with a gravestone marked "Known Unto God", but the bodies of many of those commemorated on these memorials were never recovered, could not be recovered, or no remains were left to be recovered.
^ In addition to the main memorials to the missing, there are numerous individual memorials to missing soldiers, or small groups of soldiers, known to be buried in particular cemeteries, but where the exact identity of the bodies was not known. Sometimes nothing more than the nationality or rank of the soldier could be identified, and this information would be inscribed on the memorial in the absence of a name. Those memorials are not listed here.
^ "In all too many cases, alas, those who fall upon the field of battle, fall in some part of the field where no friend can reach them alive. The burial parties, which work wherever it is possible, often in danger, cannot reach them under the machine guns of the enemy. Months afterwards, sometimes years, the battle rolls beyond that place, and these poor forms are dealt with as tenderly as the time and place allow ... too often there is left no trace or clue as to the soldier's name. Private or officer, he lies there, 'An Unknown Soldier'. – Where the Australians Rest, Department of Defence, Melbourne, 1920" Memorials to the Missing of WW1 and WW2, accessed 29 December 2009
^ "Around 300,000 soldiers are remembered on memorials to the missing in France & Belgium. These are men who were killed in action but have no known grave. The largest of these is the Thiepval Memorial to the missing which commemorates over 70,000 officers and men who were lost on the Somme." Commonwealth War Graves Commission Memorials To The Missing, accessed 29 December 2009

[1] Some of those named on memorials to the missing will have been buried as "unknowns", with a gravestone marked "Known Unto God", but the bodies of many of those commemorated on these memorials were never recovered, could not be recovered, or no remains were left to be recovered.

[2] In addition to the main memorials to the missing, there are numerous individual memorials to missing soldiers, or small groups of soldiers, known to be buried in particular cemeteries, but where the exact identity of the bodies was not known. Sometimes nothing more than the nationality or rank of the soldier could be identified, and this information would be inscribed on the memorial in the absence of a name. Those memorials are not listed here.

[3] "In all too many cases, alas, those who fall upon the field of battle, fall in some part of the field where no friend can reach them alive. The burial parties, which work wherever it is possible, often in danger, cannot reach them under the machine guns of the enemy. Months afterwards, sometimes years, the battle rolls beyond that place, and these poor forms are dealt with as tenderly as the time and place allow ... too often there is left no trace or clue as to the soldier's name. Private or officer, he lies there, 'An Unknown Soldier'. – Where the Australians Rest, Department of Defence, Melbourne, 1920" Memorials to the Missing of WW1 and WW2, accessed 29 December 2009

[4] "Around 300,000 soldiers are remembered on memorials to the missing in France & Belgium. These are men who were killed in action but have no known grave. The largest of these is the Thiepval Memorial to the missing which commemorates over 70,000 officers and men who were lost on the Somme." Commonwealth War Graves Commission Memorials To The Missing, accessed 29 December 2009

List of Commonwealth War Graves Commission World War I memorials to the missing in Belgium and France information

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List of Commonwealth War Graves Commission World War I memorials to the missing in Belgium and France

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