Valour Remembered
The marking of graves of fallen Victoria Cross recipients by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission follows a distinctive and different convention to those grave markers used for most Commonwealth war casualties. It is a difference honouring the casualty’
Equality in death has always been the very watchword of the Commonwealth War Grave Commission (previously the Imperial War Graves Commission) in its marking of the graves of casualties from the First and Second World War. To that end, the graves of the lowliest of private soldiers to generals and air marshals, for instance, have always been identically marked; that is: name, rank, service number and the regiment, ship, or unit in which the casualty served. This is supplemented by an appropriate religious symbol (usually a cross or a Star of David) and with an epitaph at the foot of the grave marker if requested by the next-of-kin. It is a uniformity which is striking when one visits Commonwealth War Graves Cemeteries. There is an exception, however: the graves of those who were recipients of the Victoria Cross.
Visitors to those cemeteries where Victoria Cross recipients lie buried not unusually find a particular interest in the grave or place of commemoration of servicemen who received a decoration which takes precedence over all others and is a decoration which, arguably, is the most highly prized decoration for bravery in the world. Thus, a facsimile of the Victoria Cross is engraved in outline on the central part of the grave marker where, ordinarily, the religious symbol would be placed. In cases where the name appears on a memorial, the letters VC have usually been placed in front of the surname to draw particular attention and catch the eye of the viewer. According to CWGC records, there are 259 recipients of the VC from the First World War and 111 from the Second World War who are commemorated on headstones, or if
they have no known grave, no grave but the sea, or the grave is unmaintainable, then they are honoured by the inscription of their name on a CWGC memorial. In some instances, and in both wars, private grave memorials were erected by families and thus followed their own individual patterns.
The CWGC cemetery with the largest number of VC recipients buried therein is the Taukkyan Cemetery, Myanmar (formerly Burma), where seven VC casualties lie, while the CWGC memorial commemorating the most VCs is the Arras Memorial with 13 VCs honoured. Meanwhile, what is probably the most famous First World War memorial, the Menin Gate at Ypres, Belgium, honours eight VCs. Such memorials (including those at Menin Gate, Thiepval, Rangoon, and at Portsmouth and Runnymede in Britain, for example) commemorate those who have no known or marked grave.
Significantly, not all CWGC graves or memorials that are marked with a Victoria Cross are graves of recipients who had received the award posthumously. In other words, the casualty had received the award for an action or actions which pre-dated their death. A notable case in point is the grave of Wing Commander Guy Gibson, VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, who was famously awarded the Victoria Cross for his leadership of 617 Squadron during the ‘Dambuster’ raid of May 1943. Gibson was in fact killed in action on 19 September 1944 and lies buried at Steenbergen, in the Netherlands, where his grave marker is engraved with the standard
Victoria Cross facsimile.
Notable among all VC inscribed CWGC grave markers, however, is that to Captain N G Chavasse, VC and Bar, MC, of the Royal Army Medical Corps (see pages xx to xx). His grave at Brandhoek New Military Cemetery, Belgium, is uniquely marked with two Victoria Cross facsimile engravings since there was no other way to mark a Bar (second award) to the VC than two mark the stone with two representations of the medal.