WAR GRAVES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 87, 13 April 1944, Page 4

WAR GRAVES

The Imperial War Graves Commission, in its twenty-fourth annual report, states that it has had to face many anxieties and misfortunes, particularly in the early years of the war, but has preserved unshaken its faith in the higher purposes and ideals of its work. In the United Kingdom itself, where there were already some 41 000 graves, shortage of labour and the difficulties of transport had prevented the erection of headstones during hostilities. Meanwhile the Commission was marking the graves with a simple wooden cross bearing its monogram. In all the African theatres of war the time for the Commission to assume responsibility for the permanent care of the cemeteries had come. In the spring of 1943 the Commission began to make arrangements, in response to a request from the Army, to take over for permanent maintenance and construction the graves of the several East African campaigns, of the Western Desert, and the Libyan fighting, of the Eighth Army's great advance from El Alamein, and of the fighting in Algeria and Tunisia. For this purpose it created a new administrative area under Colonel R. H. Hoffman (South Africa) as deputy controller. The Commission then appointed Mr. J. Hubert Worthington, F.R.1.8.A., as its principal architect for North Africa. Mr. Worthington, who made a 4our of inspection extending from Cairo to Algiers, has recommended the creation of seven cemeteries between Alexandria and Tripoli, and of 10 in Tunisia and Algeria. The choice of sites has been made with due regard to their military association, their environment, and ease of access and maintenance. These" recommendations have been approved.