Everything you need to know about War Graves Week

Each May, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission presents War Graves Week: our annual celebration of our work around the world.

War Graves Week (WGW) invites you to discover the stories behind the world wars at our sites across the globe. And with over 1.7 million men and women commemorated by Commonwealth War Graves, there are lots of stories to tell!

But War Graves Week is also an opportunity to learn more about the people and work behind the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s ongoing work to commemorate these people. It’s about our staff, our work, and our sites.

At a glance: What’s on this page

On this page, you will learn all about War Graves Week, including:

• What War Graves Week is
• How to take part in War Graves Week
• How to find War Graves Week events near you
• What to expect at a War Graves Week event
• How to find names and stories before, during, and after War Graves Week

What is War Graves Week?

A Week of Discovery

Taking place each May, War Graves Week is our largest week of worldwide activity.

Image: Schoolchildren on a War Graves Week tour in Sierra Leone

We invite you to come down to our cemeteries and memorials in the UK and at many different overseas locations for talks, tours, and more activities. 

You can meet our teams face-to-face, discover more about how we care for the Commonwealth’s war dead, our cemeteries and memorials, and uncover stories of those we commemorate.

This year shines a spotlight on these servicemen and women inspired by our storytelling platform For Evermore. Connecting your family stories to the people and places that commemorate them is a meaningful part of War Graves Week and helps us keep their memories alive forever.

Why CWGC Runs War Graves Week

War Graves Week is the perfect opportunity to come and meet us and learn more about who we are, what we do, and the people commemorated in our cemeteries and memorials.

It’s also a great opportunity for us to meet you! We have war graves in over 23,000 locations in over 155 countries and territories around the world, but sadly, not everyone knows about our work.

We love forging new connections and reaching out to people from all walks of life. The world wars shaped the world we live in today and continue to resonate around the globe. We are part of this story, so spreading our message and informing the public of our ongoing work is important.

From individual enthusiasts to families researching their relatives and ancestors, to schools and educational establishments, and organisations of all shapes and sizes, we put on War Graves Week each year to help reach new audiences and meet new people and partners. 

Come and visit a War Graves Week event near you this year to learn more!

Why War Graves Week Matters

Image: A War Graves Week tour underway in a UK cemetery

War Graves Week is the perfect opportunity to find and explore interesting sites near you and engage with our local and shared history! 

Megan Maltby, CWGC Head of Public Engagement, says: “War Graves Week is an opportunity for people to see familiar places in a new light. Across the world, there are stories of courage, loss and resilience that are part of the community’s history yet often go unnoticed in everyday life. By highlighting these stories, War Graves Week reinforces the importance of remembrance and the role these individuals played in our shared history.”

Discovering places near to home

Each War Graves Week, we run a host of events in the UK.

Every community nationwide was touched by loss during the world wars, with families losing loved ones in military service. Our war graves and memorials can be found in over 12,000 locations across the United Kingdom, so history is very much on your doorstep!

War Graves Week lets you explore local sites to uncover more about the people commemorated there, who they were, and our work in caring for their final resting places.

From a local site to a shared story

We do not just run War Graves Week events in the UK. The world wars, as their name suggests, were truly global events. Millions of servicemen from across the Commonwealth, not just Britain, fought and fell alongside one another on battlefields all over the world.

A shared story of loss and commemoration links us. War Graves Week lets us explore this shared history by sharing the stories of Commonwealth servicemen commemorated around the globe.

Previously, we’ve held War Graves Week events in France and Belgium, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Kenya, Thailand, Malta, Iceland and a myriad of countries worldwide. 

With plans to expand War Graves Week’s global presence, we are keen to showcase our work on a global scale and highlight the international significance of the armed forces of the British Empire in the World Wars.

So, why does War Graves Week matter? It matters because the world wars were not just a British story: they were international events on a huge scale. Come and visit us to learn more about the Commonwealth’s shared history and what that looks like in our commemoration work.

A practical way into commemoration

Commemoration can be quite an abstract concept. What does it look like? What does it mean?

War Graves Week provides a look at what goes into commemorating the Commonwealth’s war dead today. You’ll be able to meet: 

• Our expert, skilled craftspeople who maintain our headstones, memorials, and structures around the world
  The gardeners and horticulturalists who ensure our cemeteries continue to be spaces that inspire and delight
• The volunteers who generously share their time to help us share the stories of those in our care
  Our head office teams that coordinate our work around the world
• Local teams and their role in caring for the Commonwealth’s war dead in hundreds of territories and countries worldwide

There’ll be opportunities for you to find and share stories of those we commemorate, including your relatives, via our For Evermore stories archive and app.

How to take part in War Graves Week?

Image: Headstone rubbings and getting hands-on with carving are just some of the fun activities you can enjoy at War Graves Week events

There are many ways you can take part in War Graves Week. Here’s how.

Attend a local event or tour

CWGC tours run through the year but we’ve plenty to offer at War Graves Week! 

 You’ll be able to find tours from Shetland to Jersey, from Belfast to Aberystwyth, from Derby to Winchester, and everywhere in between.

We also run public War Graves Week events at countries around the world, including France, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Germany, Italy, Iceland, and Malta, to name just a few.

Visit the War Graves Week page to find the latest WGW events near you.

Use the app on site

The CWGC and For Evermore apps were created to help you learn more about our sites and the people they commemorate.

The For Evermore App holds tours of select cemeteries and memorials around the world, as well as showcasing stories of those buried or commemorated within. While we encourage you to take on a War Graves Week talk or tour when you visit, you can use this to peruse our sites at your leisure.

Our apps are free to download. Head over to the app page to find them.

Search for a name before you go

The names of the servicemen and women in our records are linked to their final resting places or points of commemoration.

Our records can help you find them. The Find War Dead tool allows you to search through our casualty database by name, country of service, place of burial, and more options to help you refine your search.

You can also search for stories on For Evermore, as each casualty story’s place of burial is included on each page.

Be sure to cross-reference casualties and names with our WGW tour locations before you visit to avoid disappointment.

Find War Graves Week Events Near You

Want to find War Graves Week events close to you? Here’s how.

Browse by region

On the War Graves Week page, you’ll find the list of all that year’s tours and locations.

We separate tours by country & region in the UK and Channel Islands:

• Scotland
• Wales
• Northern Ireland
• North England
• East England
• West England & Midlands
• South East England
• South West England

You will also find the non-UK countries where we will be running War Graves Week events on this page too!

See War Graves Week tours

What to expect from a War Graves Week event

At a War Graves Week event, you can expect:

• Talks and tours from CWGC staff and our amazing volunteers
• Insights into how we care for our cemeteries and memorials, including horticulture and maintenance from the people behind the work
• Stories of those we commemorate

Whenever War Graves Week occurs, booking and access information will be available through the event links on the WGW page.

Using the For Evermore App in War Graves Week

Download for iOS Download for Android

The For Evermore app offers virtual and in-person tours for selected sites around the world, and you can use it to boost your War Graves Week experience.

What the app helps you do

Whether you’re at one of our cemeteries or in the comfort of your own home, you can experience a guided tour of our site by one of our expert historians through the app.

We’ve compiled tours of some of our most visited sites around the world, and many of these places host War Graves Week talks and events.

How to use the app before, during, and after WGW

During War Graves Week, you could use the app to:

• Plan visits to CWGC sites hosting WGW events and get to know the site before you visit (please note that the For Evermore app only has a select number of sites worldwide, so be sure to check events happening near you to see if they’re in the app!)
• Take self-guided tours of our sites if you want to uncover stories, key facts, cemetery and memorial details, and historic information
• Research and discover more sites around the world after whetting your appetite for all things CWGC at War Graves Week!

Finding names & sites for War Graves Week

Image: Sea Scouts on a WGW trip to a Maltese cemetery

Searching our database can help you connect names and places during War Graves Week.

Find War Dead is our tool that lets you search for each and every casualty commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and their place of commemoration.

Find Cemeteries and Memorials function lets you search across all 23,000-plus CWGC locations worldwide. Combine this with our WGW events list to help plan your visit.

Browsing stories on For Evermore

War Graves Week is inspired by our online stories archive and storytelling platform For Evermore: Stories of the Fallen.

Here’s how it can help with your War Graves Week experience.

What For Evermore is

For Evermore is our digital stories archive, collecting and compiling stories of those we commemorate.
The stories are partly generated by our work, but also by the general public, organisations large and small, and individual researchers with a passion for Commonwealth military history. We are particularly keen to showcase your family stories on our platform.

For Evermore was established to protect, share, and archive these important stories. The people we commemorate, and their loss, helped build the world as we know it. With For Evermore, we can ensure their stories and memories are never forgotten. 

How stories add depth to a visit

Image: War Graves Week visitors at Rome War Cemetery, Italy, learning more about the people commemorated there

As you’ll see when you visit us during War Graves Week, CWGC cemeteries and war memorials are important, moving places of commemoration.

But, sometimes, it can be hard to humanise the names carved in headstones or etched in our name panels.
Stories of the people we commemorate help us better understand what these people experienced. Each name was a real person with their own interests, ambitions, hopes, and fears. Each had their own families and loved ones and complex lives worth remembering.

These stories push commemoration to more than just visiting a place and reading the stones and memorials. They help us connect with the people each site commemorates, creating deeper links across the Commonwealth’s shared history.

Upload a story to For Evermore during War Graves Week

If you’ve been inspired by your visit, or want to help enhance other people’s on-site experience at War Graves Week, we encourage you to share your stories on For Evermore!

Uploading stories is simple. You can select different service branches, nationalities and themes to help organise your stories and make it easy for others to find them.

Head over to For Evermore today to get started.

Author acknowledgements

Alec Malloy is a CWGC Digital Content Executive. He has worked at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission since February 2022. During that time, he has written extensively about the World Wars, including major battles, casualty stories, and the Commission's work commemorating 1.7 million war dead worldwide.