LAND FIT FOR THE FALLEN
“IT WAS HERE THE IDEA OF AN ORGANISATION THAT WOULD RECORD, LOOK AFTER AND MAINTAIN THE GRAVES WAS BORN”
The battlefields of World War I are now dotted with cemeteries – places of serenity rather than slaughter. White headstones line up like soldiers on parade, the parade ground a still and silent place of reflection and remembrance. On a summer’s day, the shadow of an English rose will fall on every stone.
The existence of these sites owe a lasting debt to one man who was determined that the great sacrifice of these soldiers would never be forgotten. Born in Bristol in 1869, Fabian Arthur Goulstone Ware was 45 when war broke out and was considered too old to fight.
A former teacher, schools administrator and newspaper editor, he was put in charge of the Red Cross mobile units to search and care for the wounded. As he travelled he came across many hasty burials in fields, in farms, in woods, even in gardens. He became troubled about the lack of an organisation responsible for keeping records of these burials.
Saddened by the scale of the loss and deeply concerned about the future of these forsaken graves, he began to seek out burial places and keep precise records of the names and locations.“Ware had this extraordinary vision,” explains Victoria Wallace, Director General of the Commonwealth
