Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Cemeteries and Memorials in England

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission looks after the graves throughout England of many thousands of servicemen and women who lost their lives in service for this country. These range from the large memorials to the missing of the various services, memorials in war grave cemeteries and also many individual memorials in cemeteries and churchyards across the land.

This Joint Policy Statement between the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Historic England both establishes a shared understanding of how the CWGC’s war cemeteries and their buildings are cared for and managed and establishes a common understanding of the Commission’s on-going responsibilities.

The Commission’s responsibility is to preserve the cemeteries and memorials in perpetuity and Historic England has therefore agreed and supports this statement of the processes which the Commission adopts and the heritage strategy which guides this work. CWGC monuments and memorials are subject to less change than most listed buildings; they still carry out their original role and the most frequent alterations are likely to relate to making sure their inscriptions remain legible. This document therefore also sets out how that obligation to record names of casualties correctly is carried out.