Somme 2023 - CWGC Experience

NVAA Battlefield Tour 2023
CWGC Visitor Centre Beaurains

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) visitor centre at Beaurains, near Arras, provides an insight into the functioning of the CWGC in the maintenance of British and Commonwealth cemeteries worldwide. 

CWGC Visitor Centre Beaurains

The CWCG commemorates 1.7 million Commonwealth servicemen and women who died in two World Wars. It operates at 23,000 sites in 150 countries and territories world wide

Workshops produce headstones, signage, wooden furniture and doors, as well as metalworking for cemeteries.

CWGC Beaurains Workshops

Beaurains produces 2-3 thousand headstones per year which are shipped worldwide to replace those that are damaged and weathered.

CWGC Beaurains Headstone's ready for shipment

The headstones are cut to the required shape and an engraving machine stencils badges and lettering. 

CWGC Beaurains Headstone Engraving

CWGC Headstone Components

CWGC Headstone Shapes

CWGC Headstone Stone Types

Signage, wooden furniture and doors, as well as metalworking for cemeteries is produced at Beaurains.

CWGC Beaurains Sign Production

CWGC Beaurains Sign Production

CWGC Beaurains Metalworking

CWGC Beaurains Metalworking

There are servicing facilities for machinery and tools used to maintain the gardens.

CWGC Beaurains 

Specialists are responsible for the recovery and identification of the 20 to 30 remains which are found each year on the former battlefields. They will endeavour to trace relatives and ensure those found are buried with appropriate military honours. This specialist work led to the CWGC creating a new cemetery at Fromelles in 2019, the first in over 60 news.  

Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery model