A Guide’s Guide to Guiding: Working at Tyne Cot Cemetery

Join CWGF Guide Cole Green as he takes us through his experiences working at Tyne Cot Cemetery this summer.

A Guide’s Guide to Guiding: Tyne Cot Cemetery 

Image: War graves and the Stone of Remembrance at Tyne Cot Cemetery (Photo by Cole Green)

Recently, my colleagues and I completed our first week working as Guides at Tyne Cot Cemetery for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Already, I have interacted with people of different ages, nationalities and backgrounds who have travelled to pay their respects to the fallen of the Great War. 

It has been a challenging and rewarding first week. 

Being a Guide creates a fly-on-the-wall position that allows us to observe how people view, understand and discuss the war in 2024 by the ways in which they navigate the site. 

Visitors showcase different quirks, mannerisms, and behaviours reflecting the range of cultural, national and public memories that the legacy of the Great War continues to spawn to this day. 

A key reward therefore is to interact with these visitors. 

So far, I have given tours to families from Canada, guided a father and son from South Africa and introduced Tyne Cot to some Dutch passers-by who didn’t know about its existence. 

Visitors are almost always surprised, even shocked, to learn that the CWGC is still locating and identifying casualties to this day. 

As a result, these visitors frequently ask to be directed towards the most recent burials at Tyne Cot. 

I try to help people understand that Tyne Cot is not confined to history, but an active functioning cemetery. 

Different nationalities at Tyne Cot 

Different people from different nationalities respond to Tyne Cot in their own unique ways. Yet, most describe the impact of the war on their countries and communities. 

My colleague and I recently had conversations with a gentleman from New Zealand and a lady from Newfoundland about how people today are still affected by the loss of life that the war inflicted onto their communities. 

We are learning how strong the intergenerational and national mourning of the Great War can be to this day. 

Image: Australian war graves at Tyne Cot Cemetery (Photo by Cole Green)

I am having many conversations with visitors from countries that are unbelievably far away from France and Flanders, such as Australia and Canada, about how strange it must have been for soldiers to fight in a war so far away from home. 

In a modern, globalised world that allows access to quick and affordable travel, it’s easy to misunderstand the sheer volume of the sacrifices that these individuals and their families had to make. 

Despite being a Commonwealth cemetery, many of our visitors are Belgian and Dutch. 

Our Dutch Visitors frequently use the sacrifices displayed at Tyne Cot to discuss the impact of the Second World War on the Netherlands. 

Similarly, our Belgian visitors speak about the wider devastation that the Great War inflicted on their country. 

I met one local lady who described to me the experience of slowly learning about the horrors of the war as a child growing up in Ieper. 

We try to tailor our tours to the interests and nationality of the visitor. Belgian visitors are always interested in visiting a Belgian casualty at Tyne Cot - Richard Verhaeghe. 

Although a Commonwealth cemetery, we highlight that there are ways for everyone to connect to a story at Tyne Cot.  

Interestingly, many visitors speak of the First World War’s place on their nation’s education syllabus. One gentleman from New Zealand, for example, told me that the Great War is still central to the study of history in New Zealand schools. 

It has reminded me that teaching the Great War in schools is still central to its enduring legacy. 

Students at Tyne Cot 

The schools that we do get at Tyne Cot are almost always British. In July, they provide the largest volume of visitors. 

Each school responds to Tyne Cot in different ways. 

Some teachers tell their groups to remain silent throughout their stay whilst others choose a spot in the cemetery to read poetry or play the Last Post. 

Whilst some schools are guided by their own guides, others grant their students the independence to mingle freely amongst the graves and explore the site. 

Often, the teachers approach us and ask us questions which, in turn, encourages the kids to ask us questions also. 

After they visit Tyne Cot, schools often visit Langemark - a German cemetery nearby - to allow students to view a German cemetery alongside a Commonwealth one. 

Although many students leave their coaches unaware of Tyne Cot’s importance, the scale of the cemetery has the power to captivate anyone. 

The challenges of working at a CWGC cemetery

These are the rewards that I am experiencing so far as a Guide. Yet, there are also challenges that come with working here. 

One challenge is finding the right language to use when communicating with visitors. 

For example, I often describe this experience as my ‘duty’ or ‘work’ rather than my ‘job.’ I also try to avoid using words like ‘tourist’ to describe those we welcome. 

Although it is a tourist attraction for some, that is not how we, as Guides, are communicating this site to others.

Tyne Cot is a cemetery, a former battlefield and a site of great suffering. It has been challenging to find the tone, language and manner to communicate this to visitors.  

The second challenge that I am encountering is not becoming absent from the site the more time I spend here. 

The rawness of experiencing a site like Tyne Cot can disappear when the site becomes scheduled into daily life. Spending a large quantity of time here creates a challenge to resist complacency when describing Tyne Cot to visitors. 

Although we have spoken to many people about Tyne Cot’s history, it is easy for these words to become automatic rather than feeling the stories that we are telling. 

Image: Tyne Cot Cemetery's iconic Cross of Sacrifice (Photo by Cole Green)

In short, it is difficult to help people grasp the gravity of Tyne Cot’s importance when we’re struggling to comprehend the scale of the human destruction here ourselves. 

The final challenge is to remember that most of our visitors are experiencing Tyne Cot for the first time. 

To combat this, I regularly try to recollect how I felt when I first entered the cemetery. 

It is important to let our visitors explore the site and welcome them with respect. 

For us Guides, the reason the visitor is visiting in the first place is important knowledge. It allows us to establish what type of information the visitor might want to know or if they want to be left in privacy (as many of them do). 

This can lead to a grey zone, however. Sometimes visitors ask to be guided around Tyne Cot, but they may want to be left with their own thoughts. 

It can be hard to know whether to begin a conversation with someone or remain quiet and allow the visitor to experience Tyne Cot without interruption.

Establishing whether the visitor has any genealogical or personal connections is a good way of alerting us to the type of experience the visitor may want. 

Likewise, if our visitors are interested in history, we can create a tour full of contextual information. 

Nevertheless, it can be difficult to provide the appropriate experience for someone when it isn’t clear what their motives are for visiting. 

On many occasions, people will approach us to simply explain how they feel about the site rather than seeking a ‘guided tour.’ 

Sometimes, our job as Guides is simply to listen to people and to give people our time and attention should they seek it. 

Final reflections

By working here, I’m learning to tailor my behaviour and alter my interactions with people depending on their motivation for visiting Tyne Cot and their reaction to the site. 

After all, we are tour guides and not tour lecturers.

Guiding at a site like Tyne Cot is sometimes less about educating people about the history and more about helping visitors navigate their way through a difficult period of human suffering. 

Want to support the Commonwealth War Graves Guides Programme? Donate today

The Commonwealth War Graves Foundation Guides Programme gives young history lovers an opportunity to work for Commonwealth War Graves in France and Belgium.

They welcome visitors, share the incredible stories of those commemorated by Commonwealth War Graves, and help assist our guests on their journey of remembrance at important sites like Thiepval in Northern France and Tyne Cot, Belgium.

We’re passionate about preserving the memories of the Commonwealth’s war dead and interacting with young people to keep their stories alive. Our Guides help us in our core mission while becoming equipped with real-life skills to aid their personal development.

Our Guides Programme relies on your generosity. 

£100 could pay to fully train one of our Guides ready for their experience of working abroad so they are best able to welcome visitors, share the incredible stories of those we commemorate, and help assist visitors on their journey of remembrance.

Please donate to the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation today to keep projects like this going.