Remembrance is… What remembrance means to the Foundation team

The CWGF team reflects on what remembrance means to them as we take time to remember the sacrifice of those who fell during the World Wars.

Remembrance is…

What does remembrance mean to Abigail Rowlands?

Abigail Rowlands is the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation Fundraising Administrator and former Guide. With a keen interest in history, Abigail shares several artefacts and their meaning with us:

“Remembrance is Second Lieutenant Leslie Wallace Ablett’s artefacts and all those he represents of the two World Wars.

“When I was an Intern for the CWGF back in 2019, I was fortunate enough to learn a lot about the recovery and reburial process from the team based at Beaurains. During this time, I came to discover the story of Second Lieutenant Ablett in detail, and I was able to see his personal effects first-hand.

“The condition of Ablett’s knee-high officer boots remains vivid in my mind all these years later. Kept in water for preservation, these boots looked like they could have been manufactured yesterday.

“For me, remembrance is seeing these items- a pen, a tie, a spoon, a tube of toothpaste-and reflecting on the humanity behind the war.

“It is remembering that each name on a headstone or a war memorial symbolises a life lived during a time of turmoil. This pen would have been used to write letters back to Ablett’s family, the toothpaste to clean his teeth, and the tie believed to be the same one Lieutenant Ablett wore in his professional war portrait. It is remembering the struggle to stay alive bogged down in a trench.

“Second Lieutenant Ablett was found in the fields of Belgium a century after his death and was reburied in Tyne Cot Cemetery in November 2021. Ablett and his artefacts represent that connection between past and present, and the ability to make a time that seems so far gone tangible once again. “

What does remembrance mean to Saira Holmes?

Commonwealth War Graves Foundation Trust and Corporate Fundraising Officer shares the story of Flying Officer Thomas Peter Kingsland Higgs and what remembrance means to her. Over to Saira:

Image: Flying Officer Thomas Peter Kingsland Higgs (Image: Saira Holmes) 

“Remembrance is making time to reflect on the experiences of individuals such as Flying Officer Thomas Peter Kingsland Higgs (commonly known as Peter) who was the first RAF pilot to be killed in action in the Battle of Britain.

“He died on 10^th July 1940 aged only 23 and he is buried in Noordwijk General Cemetery in the Netherlands in a joint grave. My mother was a great friend of Peter’s and she never forgot him. We used to visit the Memorial at Merton College, Oxford where his name is inscribed.

“He is also commemorated on the Cenotaph in Shepton Mallet where he lived before the war. In 1935 he wrote ‘My Prayer’ in my mum’s autograph book.

“The opening line ‘Make me too brave to lie or be unkind’ leads on to what now seems a very poignant text, written by a young man whose life was cut short only five years later. The poem ends ‘May I forget what ought to be forgotten, and recall, unfailingly, all that ought to be recalled.’

“That, to me, sums up remembrance.”

What does remembrance mean to John Grain?

Finally, Commonwealth War Graves Foundation Executive Director John Grain shares his thoughts on what remembrance means to him:  

“For me, remembrance is the gratitude we all must have for those who gave up everything in order to preserve our freedoms.

“My father who was nine when the war ended always spoke to us as children about our shared debt of gratitude to those who had fought in the wars.

“It is a privilege to work for the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation and continue to show our gratitude for those who died by sharing their stories.

“In March 1945, just a few months before the end of the war, Walter Newton set sail on HMS Lapwing bound for Archangel almost 2,000 miles away above the Arctic Circle. From Barnsley, Walter was a Telegraphist, and only 19 years old.

“The Lapwing was part of the notorious Arctic convoys, taking supplies to support the Russians. Weather conditions were atrocious with frequent freezing gales and the brutal cold meant waves would freeze when they landed on board the decks.

“If the men didn’t quickly de-ice them by hand it would be enough to make the ships capsize.

“Walter had tried to sign up for service before, twice being turned away for being too young before finally enlisting in the Navy. He had a younger brother Denis, who idolised him, and would often accompany him to Barnsley FC’s football matches where they would sell programmes to make a bit of pocket money.

“On the morning of the 20^th of March, only a day’s sailing away from the Russian port of Murmansk, HMS Lapwing was hit by a torpedo from German submarine U-968.

“Within twenty minutes the destroyer had sunk and with life expectancy of less than five minutes in the freezing seas, only 61 of the 219 crew survived.

“Sadly, Walter was not one of them.

“His brother Denis remembers the telegram arriving informing them that he had been lost at sea.

“From that day on, Denis (my future father-in-law) rarely spoke of his brother but told me late on in his own life that he still thought of him and missed him every single day.”

Walter is commemorated by the CWGC at Portsmouth Naval Memorial, one of 24,657 casualties.

Help the Foundation keep the memories of our war dead alive during this time of remembrance

Remembrance is at the core of what we do at the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation.

Keeping the stories and memories of the Commonwealth’s war dead is our mission.

As we think about remembrance and commemoration at this time of year, please consider donating to the Foundation or becoming a member to support our work. Thank you.