20 October 2025
From drawing board to reality: The art and plans of Commonwealth War Graves architecture
THIS IS A TEST
Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries and memorials are among the most beautiful in the world. Discover the plans, sketches and early architectural visions behind some of our sites here.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission architecture
Establishing iconography
Designing cemeteries and memorials commemorating the war dead of the First World War was one of the Imperial War Graves Commission’s earliest challenges.
We recruited some of the finest architects, draughtsmen, and designers of the day to create final resting places and commemorative spots that did justice to the sacrifice made by 1.1 million men and women of the British Empire in wartime.
After our architectural principles were established in 1919, our principal architects went to work. Sir Edwin Lutyens, Sir Herbert Baker, and Sir Reginald Blomfield oversaw and designed some of our most enduring, architecturally stunning sites.
The work of these three men and their teams had a significant influence on the Commission’s aesthetics.
As well as the look and feel of the cemeteries and memorials, we also developed our unique cemetery features at this time. Even now, over a century after our founding, you can instantly tell when you’re at a Commission site, thanks to the work done by our architectural pioneers.
Our rows of iconic headstones are the most obvious marker, but the Stone of Remembrance and Cross of Sacrifice are also indelibly linked to Commission sites. The combination of all three forms a powerful aesthetic, one that has resonated for over 100 years.
Come the Second World War, our architects faced similar challenges as more than 600,000 servicemen and civilians lost their lives.
So, how did these iconic sites and brick-and-mortar masterpieces come to life? We’ve perused our archives to find some of the plans, sketches, and blueprints behind some of our most interesting and iconic locations and design elements.
Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, France
The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing is unmistakable and unmissable. Rising high over the sombre former battlefields of the Somme, peaking through a woodland canopy, the 45-metre-tall structure dominates the landscape.
You can see this in the above original architectural site layout plan. Look at how the central structure commands the space, standing vigilant among the woods and lawn, bearing the names of over 72,000 missing officers and enlisted men, for their eternal remembrance.
The plans also show the context in which Thiepval sits: a place of peaceful serenity, contrasting starkly with the carnage and terror of the Battle of the Somme.
Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the memorial’s form is relatively abstract, featuring interplaying wings, pillars, and triumphal arches.
Describing Thiepval, the BBC’s Dan Cruickshank said:
“The power of Lutyens’s work comes not just from the names. Power comes from the elemental abstract form. The arches pirouette, they crest to north, south, east, and west, symbolising a loss of direction, an uncertainty. This is a great squatting beast of a building, a pyramidal spider in the landscape.”
Certainly, Thiepval is an unmissable landmark. Walking up the tree-lined drive towards the imposing structure is breathtaking and a sensation that everyone should experience.
El Alamein War Cemetery, Egypt
The cemeteries and memorials we care for sit in a wide variety of locations and conditions, taking in nearly all types of terrain and weather.
Incorporating a cemetery into its landscape and designing it to suit the geography and local area is always an interesting challenge for an architect.
Let’s look at El Alamein War Cemetery, situated on the northern reaches of the mighty Sahara Desert, as an example.
Sir J Hubert Worthington designed the cemetery. In its finished form, it represents a peaceful desert oasis, tranquil, on the edge of the far reaches of the Sahara. El Alamein itself lies on the Mediterranean coast, and the juxtaposition between sea and sand makes for quite the setting for this commemorative complex.
You’ll notice that a wall runs around the cemetery. This is a common CWGC feature, but in this case, it doubles as a windbreak, helping protect the horticulture and headstones from the corrosive effects of the sand-laden winds.
The plant species incorporated into the design are all locally sourced and hardy enough to withstand the local conditions. In addition to adding little splashes of green beauty throughout the cemetery, planting these species helps us save on water, as they are acclimatised to Egypt’s weather.
Tyne Cot Cemetery & Memorial, Belgium
Many of our cemeteries were designed to evoke the feeling of spending time in a peaceful English country garden.
The entry to Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial sets that tone, drawing on the architecture of Victorian and Edwardian churches, as seen in the knapped flint entryway and boundary walls. In fact, the gates were based on those installed at Winchester College.
Reminders of Tyne Cot’s historic past, beyond the headstones and men buried here, are dotted around the cemetery. The most visible are the remains of several German blockhouses, captured by Australian troops during the Third Battle of Ypres, incorporated into the design.
As these plans show, the largest captured blockhouse forms the base of the magnificent central Cross of Sacrifice. King George V suggested placing the Cross atop the blockhouse during his early 1920s pilgrimage to the former battlefields.
In his autobiography, Tyne Cot architect Sir Hubert Baker wrote:
“I was told that the King, when he was there [in 1922], said that this blockhouse should remain. He expressed a natural sentiment, but in order to avoid the repellent sight of a mass of concrete in the midst of hallowed peace, which we wished to emphasize, a pyramid of stepped stone was built above it, leaving a small square of the concrete exposed in the stonework; and on this we inscribed in large bronze letters these words, suggested by Kipling, ‘This was the Tynecot Blockhouse.’ On the pyramid we set up on high the War Cross; thus from the higher ground at the back of the cemetery the cross can be seen against the historic battle-fields of the Salient, Ypres, and far and wide beyond.”
The Tyne Cot Memorial also forms the rear boundary of the cemetery, finished once more in knapped flint. It’s almost as if the undulating wall wasn’t large enough to hold all the names of the missing, so rounded cloisters divert off the main wall, providing enough space for over 34,000 servicemen’s names.
It’s interesting to see the dichotomy in layout at Tyne Cot, too. Most of the war grave plots are neatly arranged, leading up to the Cross of Sacrifice.
However, you may notice a few more “rogue” plots and burials clustered around the Cross of Sacrfice and blockhouse remains. These are some of the original battlefield burials made when the blockhouses were converted into Allied medical facilities.
Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan
Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries are serene, beautiful places, with the tranquillity standing in direct contrast with the experiences of those who lie within.
Yokohama War Cemetery, our only site in Japan, exemplifies this. Underneath eucalyptus trees, silver birch, blossoming Sakura, sycamores, and Himalayan oak, lie those who died in the Second World War’s brutal Pacific Campaigns, often as prisoners of war.
Their final resting places are exceptionally peaceful. You’ll notice that there are five distinct sections in the cemetery, containing war graves of different nationalities.
Snaking stone pathways link the various sections, which reveal themselves to visitors with an arboreal peacefulness. Note the bronze plaque grave markers in the above sketch. That indicates soil and ground conditions were not suitable for your classic stone CWGC headstone, linking Yokohama visually with other Asian cemeteries.
Yokohama War Cemetery was designed by a team of architects from the Melbourne-based ANZAC Agency. As this was a concentration cemetery, i.e., taking in burials from other burial grounds in one place, they were free to play with the design more in the context of its landscape.
Trees dominate the cemetery, giving it that garden feel, yet the undulating layout and use of local plant species distinguish Yokohama from some of our similarly tree-covered European cemeteries.
Whether intended by the architects or not, the separate national sections seemingly highlight shifting attitudes towards the Empire following the Second World War. The distinct groupings reflect the greater feelings of independence that blossomed across the British Empire post-war.
Cemetery features
Commonwealth War Graves sites have several distinct architectural elements that separate them from other military cemeteries and war memorials.
Our headstones are probably our most recognisable features with their smooth, round top, crisp and clear typography, and regimental/unit insignia. At some sites, depending on their location and conditions, you may find bronze plaques or different types of grave markers, but mostly our headstones are uniform in shape and size.
A variety of headstone designs were submitted during the initial design period. In these sketches, we can see Baker’s proposal, involving a complex colour-coded system of different icons to show years of service, wounds, and medals.
Ultimately, this proved too complicated and a simpler, more concise design was chosen. inspired by Lutyens’ submission, but sadly, no record of Lutyens’ sketches exists.
Our other two major distinguishing features are the Cross of Sacrifice and the Stone of Remembrance. As you’d expect, these two architectural pieces came together after an extensive period of design and consultation.
The Cross of Sacrifice, which you can see in CWGC cemeteries around the world, was the work of Sir Reginald Blomfeld.
In his diary, Blomfield wrote:
“What I wanted to do in designing this cross was to make it as abstract and impersonal as I could, to free it from association with any particular style, and, above all, to keep clear of any of the sentimentalities of Gothic. This was a man’s war too terrible for any fripperies, and I hoped to get within range of the infinite in this symbol of the ideals of those who had gone out to die.”
Over 1,000 examples of this enduring symbol of sacrifice stand in Commission cemeteries worldwide.
Finally, let’s examine the Stone of Remembrance.
Lutyens was keen for a universal, non-religious symbol. Some of his mooted ideas included a solid bronze ball and a regularly chiming bell, before he conceived the now familiar stone, secular altar block.
It is designed with a principle called entasis and features no straight lines, a common design feature of the temples and monuments of classical antiquity. While nearly imperceptible to the naked eye, if you were to lay a group of stones out end-to-end, they would form a circle 1,800 feet in diameter.
The inscription “Their Name Liveth For Evermore” was suggested by Commission literary advisor Rudyard Kipling, shortened from Ecclesiasticus 44:14: “Their bodies lie buried in peace; but their names liveth for evermore.”
Explore Commonwealth War Graves sites virtually with the For Evermore app
Bridging the gap between virtual and digital commemoration, this For Evermore mobile app puts some of our most iconic cemeteries and memorials in the palm of your hand.
Explore our sites virtually with virtual tours powered by Memory Anchor, curated by expert CWGC historians. From the Western Front to the Pacific Theatre, explore historic sites at your leisure.
The app draws in thousands of stories from For Evermore: Stories of the Fallen, our online digital archive. Now you can visit a site and scan a headstone to see if we’ve got a story about them.
Download the app today and begin your own For Evermore journey.