100 years on - the centenary of Colonel Frank Rogers Durham’s inspection

Between the 3rd and 24th October 1922, Colonel Frank Rogers Durham, the Commission’s Director of Works undertook an inspection recording and taking photographs of the construction progress on our cemeteries in France and Belgium. The photographs were placed in an album providing a unique visual record of our sites at various stages of completion.

Here are a few images from the album and what the same sites look like today.

The Director of Works photograph album is available as a downloadable PDF on this archive link:

Colonel Frank Rogers Durham

Born in 1872, Frank Rogers Durham was a civil engineer, horticulturalist and the Commission's first Director of Works. During the First World War, he joined the Royal Fusiliers as a Private and was commissioned as a Lieutenant into the Royal Engineers in 1916. In June 1917, he received the Military Cross. In 1918, he was Mentioned in Dispatches and promoted to Temporary Major. He was awarded the Croix de Chevalier by the French Government in August 1918.

Durham was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in July 1919 and, in the same month was appointed as the first Director of Works for the Imperial War Graves Commission. During his tenure, he travelled to many of the Commission’s sites to inspect and oversee the work of the organisation. In 1922, he was awarded with the CBE (Military Section) in recognition of his services.

Retiring from the Commission in May 1926, he married Ellis Browne in 1927, and was subsequently elected Secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society, retiring in 1945. Frank Durham died in April 1947.