Guiding for Commonwealth War Graves

Earlier this year, volunteer tour guide Marc Raven shared his experiences of volunteering with Commonwealth War Graves. Read on to learn Marc’s inspirational story.

This article was originally published in the Spring 2023 issue of Despatches: the magazine of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides and republished with permission.

Volunteering with Commonwealth War Graves

It was a good decision to answer the call for Volunteer Guides at the CWGC!

It was thanks to the Guild who alerted me to the chance to Guide for the Commonwealth War Graves (CWG) who had sent out the bugle call for Volunteers who might be interested in showing members of the Public around selected Commonwealth cemeteries around the country during the summer.

Having (rather apprehensively) put my name down, as a guide, the professional approach by the CWG team tasked with this rather herculean task of selection and handling the (inevitable) paperwork and red tape associated with the project allayed my fears.

We were given a choice to select any of the Cemeteries the Commission had chosen, but the obvious one geographically for me was in St Albans at a large ‘civilian’ cemetery which included 147 CWG, most buried in a separate CWGC plot of 93 WW1 and 79 WW2 in another separate area.

Image: The Cross of Sacrifice at St. Albans Cemetery (Marc Raven)

The remainder are scattered randomly around the 30,000-odd graves which had a few interesting occupants including the founder of the Ryder Cup and a female poisoner hanged for her sins!

This presented some interesting challenges guiding about the cemetery and trying to get the balance right with the time we were advised to take, roughly 60-80 minutes.

There were briefings online by the Commission, going through reporting procedures, how the ‘ticketing’ would work and a briefing document of points that the Commission would like us to make about the work they do. 

No issues from my point of view and no pressure to conform to a script. 

In truth, it felt like Commonwealth War Graves were feeling their way through the whole concept of promoting the work they do in such a dynamic and proactive way. I was left to my own devices which was perfect. 

Commonwealth War Graves did supply a useful range of clothing to wear and even a very official-looking tabard so I certainly couldn’t be missed by the public when they arrived. Personally, the branded polo shirt was fine as only a Battlefield Guide holds a large foolscap folder full of paper and a beige Expedition hat in a Graveyard - don’t they?

I was given free rein on the dates I wanted to do through the summer, but the start was during War Graves Week in May. It was difficult to know how many people would attend locally so I opted for 2 days a month and see how it goes.

I felt it politically astute to make contact with the Cemetery Manager, Katherine to explain what I was up to in advance, and she could not have been more helpful with access to the cemetery and its records and keeping the toilets open!

She even showed me an old wooden cross of a German POW who had been buried in the cemetery but whose body was returned to Germany in the 60’s leaving this rather poignant memento of his ‘time’ in St Albans (Hatfield Road) Cemetery.

Obviously, I could write a separate article on the research I had to do, and the individual stories of the service men and women buried in the graveyard. I found myself concentrating on the WW1 burials as that has (in my opinion) stronger links to the Commission from a historical point of view and many of the service men and women were originally treated in the local hospital called Napsbury.

Telling the story of how the Commission started and the work of Sir Fabian Ware, the meaning of the headstones, shape and layout of the plot and the Cross of Sacrifice which looms over the graves is a key part of the brief, so it needs some rigour and order to present this in a (hopefully) interesting way.

Image: The headstone of Australian Private Thomas Walker Toritoishell, one of the many in Marc's patch (Marc Raven)

In my small plot I had some wonderful stories to tell from a young Nurse who worked at Napsbury and then fell foul to Flu in 1918 , a sixteen year old Drummer boy who I suspect had the same fate, sad stories from Australian servicemen who never returned home and the sheer bravery and in one case suffering of Military Medal winners and an ‘ordinary’ Private whose family lived a few streets away and buried their son with full Military Honours.

During the summer I had some great groups but found 8-10 was the optimum, as on one occasion 18 turned up, which tested the voice!

It was so rewarding to tell these stories about the lives of what would have been ‘forgotten’ heroes, right in the centre of St Albans, and it was great to hear locals tell me that this was their first visit to the Cemetery and were glad they now knew more about how these service men and women got to be buried.

I guess that is the whole point of the exercise in the first place. Of course, locals have great local knowledge, so I was constantly adding to the presentation as I learned more about the area and how the wars affected it.

I am already booked in to guide for the CWGC in 2023, as they are expanding the project after the many thousands of new visitors who heard first-hand from the guides at the 30 specially selected sites across the country. The processes to book tickets and the information on the CWGC website is enhanced this year, so if you fancy a guided visit at a local CWGC cemetery near you – hopefully you won’t be disappointed.

Want to volunteer with Commonwealth War Graves?

We always want to hear from anyone interested in volunteering with us!

If you’d like to follow in Marc’s footsteps as a volunteer tour guide, head over to the Volunteering page to discover the latest opportunities.