Commonwealth War Graves in the Second World War: Evacuation and Detention

When the world was once again plunged into war in 1939, the then Imperial War Graves Commission faced an entirely new set of challenges. This is the story of Commonwealth War Graves in the Second World War.

Commonwealth War Graves staff in the Second World War

Storm clouds gather…

Image: The Unveiling of the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in July 1938. Just over a year later, Europe was once more plunged into war

On a sunny July day in 1938, dignitaries from around the world gathered at Villers-Bretonneux, the site of one of Australia’s greatest actions of the First World War.

This was the last great Memorial to the Missing to be built in France. It stands as a solemn reminder of the enormous human cost of the First World War, when Europe was rent asunder by conflict, its battlefields stained with the blood of millions of young men.

Led by King George VI, French President Albert Lebrun, and Australian Deputy Prime Minister, with Australian flags fluttering in the summer breeze, they had gathered for the dedication of the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. 

As the Australian National Memorial, the majestic, towered structure is dedicated to commemorate all Australian soldiers who fought in France and Belgium during the First World War, to their dead, and especially to name those of the dead whose graves are not known.

The King closed his dedication speech with the words: “They rest in peace, while over them Australia’s tower keeps watch and ward”.

Sadly, that peace would not last. Storm clouds had been brewing over Europe for some time with the aggressive expansionist policy of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Little over a year after the dedication at Villers-Bretonneux, Europe descended once more into conflict, sparking the devastating, epoch-shaping Second World War.

The Imperial War Graves Commission in France and Belgium

Image: Locals caring for Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium, 1942 with the absence of Commission staff

From its grassroots beginnings, the then Imperial War Graves Commission (now CWGC) was a well-established organisation.

Its focus was on maintaining the myriad cemeteries and memorials in France and Belgium, as well as the sites built at home and around the world.

The Commission’s workforce was comprised of gardeners, stonemasons, maintenance crews, and administrative staff dotted across the continent, but concentrated mainly in France and Belgium. 

They had established a distinct community of ex-pats, especially in Ypres, where the British Memorial School ensured many children of Commission staff received a British education and marked important dates such as Empire Day to encourage a sense of Britishness to the children.

Imperial War Graves Commission cemeteries had long been built according to the principles laid out in the immediate post-First World War landscape: places of tranquil commemoration and reflection on the huge losses of the war to end all wars.

That tranquillity was shattered with the Nazi invasion of France in May 1940.

CWGC staff in France and Belgium

Image: Sir Fabian Ware's telegram to staff ahead of the outbreak of the Second World War

When Nazi forces shocked the world with its seismic French invasion, the Commission had 526 full-time employees living and working in France and Belgium. 

Many were ex-servicemen. With them were their families. Over 1,000 wives, children, and dependents were recorded at this time.

A slightly jingoistic telegram from Imperial War Graves Commission founder and Commissioner Sir Fabian Ware sent on 1 September 1939 to Commission personnel in France and Belgium reads:

“Inform all members of staff that Commission is greatly helped at present time by the knowledge that they can depend on them quietly to carry on their work in any emergency and the relatives of the dead of the Great War can be assured that the graves will continue to be reverently and lovingly cared for.

“The Commission know that they can depend on all to show their calmness and quiet self-possession in the face of any difficulty which is a British characteristic.

“Assure them that they are constantly in my thoughts as they have been during the last twenty years, and, though it may not be possible to find immediate solutions for some of their difficulties, they can be confident that steps are being energetically taken by staff here as well as by yourself to overcome them all”.

The Commission’s emergency instructions issued from London told the gardeners and caretakers to remain steadfast at their positions. 

Despite this, Commission employees were deemed a threat to the Nazis. Dozens were arrested and locked away in civilian internment camps for the duration of the war.

Charles Henry Holton 

Image: Charles Henry Holton's Record of Previous Occupation and Military Service

Such was the fate that befell Charles Henry Holton. 

Charles was a Commission Gardener-Caretaker, caring for war graves in Northern France. With his two sons, Charles was arrested by Nazi authorities in the days following the establishment of German rule in France.

Charles and several other IWGC personnel were transferred to Ilag VIII Tost, a civilian internment camp located in Tost, Upper Silesia (now Toszek, Poland).

Whilst interned, Charles and his fellow prisoners suffered from extreme weight loss, diarrhoea, and depleted morale. 

They also struggled for many months as the Red Cross attempted to establish a reliable supply route for sending parcels of supplies. Sadly, Charles contracted cancer and died of his illness on 24 April 1941. 

He was the first of the Commission’s horticultural staff to die in captivity during the war. 

Charles is commemorated as a Civilian War Casualty. His grave is marked with a CWGC headstone in Krakow Rakowski Cemetery.

Benjamin Leech

Image: Gardener-Caretaker Benjamin Leech

Some Commission staff were able to remain at liberty and continue their work maintaining war graves, despite the adverse conditions.

Gardener-Caretaker Benjamin Leech was one of these. Benjamin kept a diary of experiences looking after cemeteries in the Beaumont Hamel department of the Somme.

Despite this, German troops came and went as they pleased. Benjamin’s diary tells of tools being stolen, soldiers being billeted on him, and even his family home being ransacked.

On 28 May 1940, Benjamin wrote: “Water cutting, etc. My eldest boy taken prisoner but returned at night when his mother went for him.”

The routine nature of Benjamin’s work, going out and caring for the war graves, cemeteries, and memorials, stands in stark contrast next to the frightening details of life under occupation.

The Somme existed in a sort of administrative limbo during the Nazi occupation of France. The long-term plan was for its population to be forcibly removed and the area resettled with German farmers but, thankfully, that plan never came to fruition.

In this environment, with a relative lack of oversight and remaining free, Benjamin was able to carry out his regular duties.  He was even able to aid the war effort in his own small way.

Risking arrest, and possibly his life, Benjamin was actively involved in concealing Allied airmen and smuggling them out of occupied France. At one point, he even hid two British airmen in the shelter buildings of Serre Road No.2 Cemetery!

Colonel Reginald Haworth OBE

In comparison to their colleagues in France, many of the Commission’s personnel in Belgium were safely evacuated to the United Kingdom, largely thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Colonel R. Haworth.

Colonel Haworth was the Commission’s Deputy Commission for Belgium. He had been sent to Belgium in 1939 when it became clear war was threatening to break out on the continent. 

His report filed to the Commission gives a day-by-day account of how he helped his staff reach the safety of the UK as German armies advanced across the Low Countries.

Saturday 18 May

The Colonel gathered staff and their loved ones together in an Ypres schoolyard, ready to travel on foot through Belgium, into northern France, with an eye on the channel coast.

“At 9.00 am in the schoolyard, we had a great crowd of families, complete with baggage and 3 days’ rations. Soon after 5.00 pm, the first convoy was loaded, and assuring the rest that we would come back for them and that must remain in the schoolyard till our return, we set off for the Frontier and Steenvorde.

“The roads were crowded with refugees and vehicles, and it was evident that the refugees had forced a way along barred roads in spite of the military.

"Poperinghe as chock-a-block with vehicles and crowds. The station was besieged by thousands. At Poperinghe, they tried to divert us but with our passes and the notices on the screens we got through to Steenvorde.”

Sunday 19 May

The journey continued, with the roads heading out of Flanders teeming with refugees, both on foot and in vehicles, fleeing their homeland. Various military vehicles were heading in numerous directions too, making the situation 

Colonel Haworth reported: “The convoy was loaded as soon as possible after breakfast and at once proceeded to Aire-sur-la-Lys via Hazebrouk. The road situation seemed worse as we had masses of French vehicles (military) going in various directions and heavy guns going in the retiring direction.”

It was decided, owing to the number of personnel and lack of vehicles, the best hope of escape lay with the French rail evacuation scheme. 

The Commission party was billeted in farms in Wallon Cappel in anticipation of the train journey from Eblinghem. However, by Monday 20 May, it was clear the French evacuation scheme had broken down. No trains would be headed for the channel.

Image: Colonel Haworth's hand-drawn map showing the evacuation route taken from Ypres to Calais in May 1940

Tuesday 21 May

Monday was spent fruitlessly searching for transport options, but good news arrived on Tuesday morning.

The British military had managed to find two lorries and rations for the Commission group, which was split into two groups.

After narrowly escaping a bombing raid, the first group was picked up and headed for Calais. The lorries returned at 5.00 pm and the second party set off, but their progress was interrupted.

“About 10 kilometres short of St. Omer near Renescure, a despatch [sic] rider stopped our column and there was a delay… I asked Captain Fisher what was happening and he said he was very sorry but urgent orders requested immediate return and he was going to take us back to the farm and leave us.

“I instantly decided on a course of action. I said ‘For God’s sake take us to St. Omer, dump us, and we’ll make our own way.’”

After being turned away from a monastery, the party’s women and children found shelter for the night in a convent in Wisques.

Wednesday 22 May

Unable to requisition further vehicles and hearing of a boat scheduled to set off from Calais, Haworth took “the desperate resolve to proceed with the four cards [sic] and as many women and children as possible and get to Guines. The remainder of the party were to set off on foot by the Calais Road, to be picked up on our return trip.”

The party finally reached Calais on Wednesday. They were billeted in an old lace factory, awaiting the ship that would take them to safety come the morning.

Thursday 23 May

With the party assembled and ready to depart, Colonel Haworth was told to report to the Regimental Transport Officer.

In Calais, Haworth reported that he was “unfortunate enough to run up against the liver of a youngish but angry Major who shot me off the quay with two seamen with antiquated rifles to ensure I didn’t lose my way.

“I am bound to admit that for the first time in this six days’ nightmare, when each day seemed like a period of 10 years, I was momentarily flummoxed, and the solution had not dawned on me.”

Despite the confusion, the Commission parties were able to board vessels taking them home.

Image: Carte de circulation temporaire, pass staff in France were required to carry in order to move freely

Colonel Haworth returned to his position as Commission Chief Accountant before resigning in September 1945. His detailed notes on his time in at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission are accessible in the Commission Archive.

More details on the evacuation from Belgium are available in Philip Longworth’s history of the Commission The Unending Vigil.

Others were able to escape France and Belgium via Cherbourg and other channel ports, dodging enemy bombing runs, risking life and limb on packed trains, and vehicles, and fleeing for safety on refugee-packed roads.

However, those left behind in France faced arrest and wartime imprisonment at the hands of the Nazis. This was a dark chapter in the Commission’s history as the storm clouds over Europe burst, bringing them the intense warfare and human suffering of the Second World War.

New war, new challenges

The Second World War heralded a new era for the Imperial War Graves Commission. 

The Commission was once again faced with the daunting task of commemorating a huge number of casualties worldwide. New cemeteries and memorials would have to be conceived, designed, and built across all corners of the globe.

The experiences of Commission staff in France and Belgium brought home the reality of this new war. Fortunately, many were successfully evacuated. 

At home in the UK, they worked towards a new future for the Commission, as well as facing the everyday challenges of commemorating the increasing number of war dead in the deadliest conflict the world had ever seen.

Discover more Commission history in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Archive

The Commonwealth War Graves archive tracks the history of the Commission from our founding in 1917 to the present day.

Featuring meeting notes, blueprints, architectural designs, and much, much more, you can discover our story as it unfolded throughout the years.

The archive is available to view online with more files being regularly digitised for public availability. What will your research uncover?