The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is sharing 120 personal stories of men and women who died in the last three months of the First World War.
Each has been carefully chosen, CWGC says, to ‘shine a light’ on the human cost of the fighting in the late summer and autumn of 1918.
The individuals represent the 120,000 members of Commonwealth forces, commemorated by the Commission, who lost their lives between the Battle of Amiens on August 8 and the Armistice of November 11. Some of those listed fell in the campaigns away from the Western Front and Europe.
For the Centenary, their stories are being released online day by day over the same period.
CWGC’s Road to Peace project will conclude on 11 November 2018, the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, with the stories of 11 people who died on the very last day of WW1.
Diversity
CWGC historian Max Dutton explains: “Behind every one of our headstones or names on a memorial to the missing, is a human story just waiting to be told. Our 100-day Road to Peace campaign will remind people of the human cost of the Great War, the sheer diversity of those who took part and the global nature of that sacrifice and remembrance today.”
The 120 stories compiled by the Commission’s team of historians range from the war poet Wilfred Owen, who was killed in action a week before Armistice, to relatively unknown individuals.
And not all died in battle. Some fell victim to the deadly ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic which grew more virulent in the closing weeks of the war.
The Road to Peace project will conclude on 11 November 2018, the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, with the stories of 11 people who died on the very last day of WW1.
“We hope it will help humanise this period of history and inspire people to visit both well-known and off the beaten track CWGC cemeteries and memorials where these men and women are remembered,” historian Max Dutton says.
“Road to Peace also reaffirms our commitment to go on remembering our war dead for now, for the next 100 years, and forever.”
Visit ‘The Road to Peace’ on the CWGC website & social media to read the stories. The project runs from 8 August – 11 November 2018.
Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Images: Centenary News
Posted by: CN Editorial Team