The first meeting of the New Year was opened by our chairman. Richard, welcoming the Members and our Speaker for the evening, Adrian Hughes. Adrian is well known to the Society and has spoken to us before, so we knew we were in for a good evening.
Adrian himself is a volunteer for the War Graves Commission and is responsible for the maintenance of the graves in Conway and Gwyneth, a total of 230 graves. He also has a mission to visit all the countries where the War Graves Commission operates.
The CWGC was founded in 1917 by Fabian Ware, a civil servant and former journalist who at 45 was too old to join the Army. In 1914 he was running a Red Cross mobile ambulance unit and lobbied the authorities to turn his team into a dedicated team for the dead. Once the War office agreed it was transferred to the Army and became known in 1917 as the Imperial War Graves Commission.
What do the War Graves Commission do: Firstly, they are responsible for the 1.7 million fallen of World Wars 1 and 2 whose graves are scattered all over the world.
There are only 160 staff, 16 of whom are gardeners, and they rely on many volunteers for the 23000 places in 150 countries that they maintain, every soldier is guaranteed a headstone which if damaged or worn will be replaced.
Belgium has the largest cemetery with 12000 graves and the names of 28000 soldiers whose bodies lie in unknown areas. The global commitment is over many areas of the world including Asia, Palestine, Mesopotamia, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Africa, Canada, and South America There are also graves in Libya and Iraq where it is difficult to access currently with the troubles. There are 300,000 burials in Britain and approx. 30,000 private graves The graves are usually marked with the name, age if known, religion, and a personal inscription or a quote by Rudyard Kipling, who was given the job initially. Local Graves can be found in St. Mary's churchyard and also in Dyserth, Holywell Bodelwyddan, and Wrexham where there are many Polish graves.
The gardeners, currently, are concerned about sustainability and conscious of the “green” issues, so they are adjusting plantings and maintenance of the graves are being changed such as the grass will be cut less, and plants used will be more in keeping with the locality. There are still bodies being found and it is good to know that they may be reburied with full military honours.

The CWGC Foundation is now collecting stories about our war heroes and would welcome any from veterans and the public. There is a website: CWGC.org that will give all the details. Thank you, Adrian, for a most interesting talk, it is a huge subject and I have only briefly covered it. Adrian runs a War Museum and a Home Front Museum in New Street in Llandudno if you wish to follow this up.
Our next meeting will be on the 2nd of February at 7 pm at the Community Centre and the speaker will be Julie Greer with her talk on “From the Clwyd to the Nile” the extraordinary life of Edward Evans. Everybody is welcome, you don’t have to be a member (we charge £3 for non-members) and you can enjoy your evening with the History Society. We are also appealing to our members once again, we desperately need volunteers for the Committee, please come to the next Meeting (2 pm at the Library on Thursday 15th February) and have a chat.