22 October 2022
Meet our latest Spotlight Award winners
The CWGC Spotlight Awards shine a light on and celebrate the dedicated individuals and teams who volunteer and support our work, enhancing our visitor’s experience with their enthusiasm and knowledge. Here are the latest winners.
A team of six volunteers working across the Isle of Wight received their Spotlight Award for outstanding work.
Karen Wilkinson, Bernard Wood, David Tisdale, Gary Newman, Jay Bartlett and Gary Butler each meticulously look after graves in different areas and their teamwork ensures all graves across the island are cared for. Several of the team are veterans themselves or have parents or spouses that served in the armed forces and therefore have a strong sense of care and duty.
Mrs Wilkinson described her motivation for becoming a volunteer:
“my paternal grandad was killed in action in Burma, now Myanmar, and his grave is there. When I contacted the CWGC many years ago they very kindly sent me a lovely photo of his headstone. Everything was so pristine and cared for. I wanted to do something that could at some point make a family member in the same position feel how I did, that our war dead have never been forgotten.”
Mr Wood expressed his delight at receiving the award and said:
“I was very pleased to receive a Spotlight Award as recognition of the volunteer work I carry out, which is sometimes very hard work. Being part of a team of volunteers on the Isle of Wight is special to me as currently we have all the war graves on the island covered.”
Mr Tisdale who served in the Royal Air Force for 25 years said:
“I feel humbled when I visit the graves of the fallen in our churchyards and graveyards here on the Isle of Wight. Offering a little of my time for those who gave their lives for us and who now lie in dispersed locations around the island is an honour.”
Dick Richards from Abingdon received his Spotlight Award for his charismatic tours, talks and commitment.
Mr Richards carries out site tours at the Botley Cemetery and has supported the work of the CWGC by giving over 30 talks to different community groups in the last few years.
Mr Richards said:
“It’s good to be acknowledged with a Spotlight Award but I’m only a commentator on the lives to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.”
Mr Richards was inspired to volunteer with the CWGC after researching his family history and discovered his great uncle died of his wounds at the Battle of the Somme and was buried at Etaples.
“My first visit to Etaples showed me what is really meant by remembrance - the serenity of the cemetery, the immaculate order and beauty of the horticulture, the obvious demonstration of equality in death and, above all, they are remembered by name as individuals not just a number.”
Amanda Clements from Guilford was praised for astonishing archive work in her Spotlight Award.
During the Covid-19 Pandemic, archive volunteering work evolved to a virtual cataloguing project. Mrs Clements embraced the project wholeheartedly and fully catalogued well over 50 archive files, far more than anyone else on the project, which has greatly aided the development of the CWGC online records.
Mrs Clements was inspired to volunteer “because the CWGC cares for the graves of two Great Uncles who died in Barlin and Hamburg in the First World War. This is my way of saying thank-you for the fantastic work that the Commission has done over the last century to commemorate the war dead.”
Mrs Clements is a keen family historian and the archive work has given her “access to some fascinating documents which often provide really interesting insights into the work of the CWGC and information about WW1 and WW2. The chance to handle and deal with these historical documents is a privilege.”
Fiona Dunlop from Peebles, has received her Spotlight award for outstanding volunteer work.
Ms Dunlop cares for over 150 graves across 15 sites in the Scottish Borders and mentors and supports new volunteers. She is now training to be a CWGC volunteer tour guide.
Ms Dunlop previously taught history at Peebles High School for 35 years and organised annual trips to sites in France and Belgium. “The days spent visiting and exploring the battlefields, museums, memorials and cemeteries of the Somme, the Ypres Salient and Loos with my colleagues and the students were amongst the most stimulating and rewarding of my career.”
Fiona “jumped at the chance” to volunteer for CWGC as she feels “the work also allows me to ‘pay back’ the CWGC for caring for the graves of two of my relations. My grandmother’s brother was killed in action in 1917 and buried in Langemark and her first cousin, who died in the Iolaire Disaster in 1919 is buried in Ness, on the Isle of Lewis.”
Fiona's work has also featured on the BBC website and has recently been recognised by the Scottish Parliament who stated:
“That the Parliament recognises the work of Fiona Dunlop in voluntarily taking care of more than 150 war graves in more than a dozen cemeteries across the Scottish Borders supported by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), with Ms Dunlop recently given a Spotlight Award for this work.”
Fiona has described this as being “a huge honour for me.”
Steven Rendi from Rotherham has received a prestigious Spotlight award for his outstanding community engagement and work.
Steven carries out site tours and gives talks locally to support the work of the CWGC which are proving so popular he already has bookings for 2023. He is also one of many ‘Eyes On, Hands On’ volunteers who check the condition and maintains isolated graves in local graveyards to ensure nobody is forgotten.
Mr Rendi is passionate about Remembrance. He was part of the Royal Navy Guard of Honour at the first ever Service of Remembrance in Port Stanley following the Falklands Conflict in 1982. He has more recently represented the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, of which he has served in for 38 years, at the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London.
Mr Rendi said:
“Being able to volunteer and represent the Commonwealth War Graves Commissioning caring for the fallen is such an honour and a privilege.”
In a letter to the award winners CWGC’s Director General, Claire Horton, said:
“I’m enormously grateful for your contribution and the valuable work that you do to support us in honouring and caring for the men and women of the Commonwealth forces who are in our care, and you should be proud to know that your work as a volunteer has made a very real difference to the way in which we are able to care for these men and women here in Great Britain.”
For more information on volunteering opportunities with the CWGC please use the link below: