War Graves

[Guy Etchells]

No it is not impossible, but often undesirable.
The system the CWGC use is very successful.
It involves making a small payment to the church or cemetery which contains the grave. The church/cemetery groundsmen, or verger etc. then simply tidy the grave as and when it requires it.
These individual graves are inspected periodically, sometimes at the request of the church/cemetery authority, to see if further work/maintenance is required.

What should be remembered is a grave in a village churchyard requires a different approach to a grave in a war cemetery.
The immaculate pristine laws often associated with a war cemetery may be totally out of place on a grave in a village churchyard.
Cheers
Guy

[IMBER]

Thanks, but having been one of those responsible for overseeing the arrangements you describe I have a pretty good insight into the pros and cons and what actually takes place and the various obstacles etc. I was merely responding to a comment that war graves in the UK are by and large, not maintained to the same standard as most abroad.  It is impossible to do so simply because of the lack of resources to enable direct maintenance.  Arrangements with others are fine when they work - often they don't and problems arise. Trying to give war graves in the UK the same level of care as most overseas does not mean trying to replicate in a typical churchyard with family links what happens in large war cemeteries. Given these graves are scattered in thousands of burial places throughout the UK the success in achieving the desired level of care is inevitably patchy.