List of Commonwealth War Graves Commission World War I memorials to the missing in Belgium and France
Introduction The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) aims to commemorate the UK and Commonwealth dead of the World Wars, either by maintaining a war grave in a cemetery, or where there is no known grave, by listing the dead on a memorial to the missing. This is a listing of those memorials maintained solely or jointly by the CWGC that commemorate by name the British and Commonwealth dead from the Western Front during World War I whose bodies were not recovered, or whose remains could not be identified. In addition to those listed here, there are numerous CWGC memorials to the missing from other battlefields around the world during the war, which are not listed here, most notably the memorials at Gallipoli, and the memorials to those lost at sea and in the air. There are also memorials to the missing from other combatant nations on the Western Front, especially those of Germany and France, but only the CWGC-maintained memorials are listed here.Although listing the names of dead soldiers on memorials had started with the Boer Wars, this practice was only systematically adopted after World War I, with the establishment of the Imperial War Graves Commission, which was later renamed the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Due to the rapid movement of forces in the early stages of the war, many of the casualties of the initial World War I battles had no known grave, and were instead commemorated after the war on 'memorials to the missing'. In later battles, the intensity of the fighting sometimes meant that bodies could not be recovered or identified until much later. The highest number of casualties occurred on the Western Front in France and Belgium. In total, over 20 separate CWGC or national memorials to the missing of the Western Front were designed and built. They were commissioned and unveiled over a period of around 15 years from the early 1920s to 1938, when the last of the planned memorials was unveiled. The numbers listed on the memorials reduces over time as remains are discovered, identified, and buried in a war grave, with the name removed from the memorial where it was listed, but over 300,000 war dead are still commemorated by these memorials to the missing.
List of memorials + Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) World War I memorials in Belgium and FranceArticle and referencePictureCountryLocationCo-ordinatesNumber listedDescription of those listedDates coveredMajor battlesDate unveiledMemorial designerMemorial unveiled by Thiepval Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Thiepval    72,194  United Kingdom and South Africa  July 1916 to March 1918  Somme Offensive    Edwin Lutyens  Edward, Prince of Wales Menin Gate Memorial CWGC 50px  Belgium  Ypres    54,382  Commonwealth nations, except New Zealand  October 1914 to 16 August 1917  Ypres Salient    Reginald Blomfield  Lord Plumer Tyne Cot Memorial CWGC 50px  Belgium  Ypres    34,916  Commonwealth nations  16 August 1917 to September 1918  Ypres Salient    Herbert Baker  Sir Gilbert Dyett Arras Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Arras    34,785  United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand  Spring of 1916 to 7 August 1918  Battle of Arras    Edwin Lutyens  Lord Trenchard Loos Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Loos-en-Gohelle    20,610  Commonwealth nations except India and Canada  25 September 1915 to 11 November 1918  casualties in the area during and after the Battle of Loos    Herbert Baker  Sir Nevil Macready Pozières Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Pozières    14,692  United Kingdom and South Africa  21 March 1918 to 7 August 1918  German spring offensive    William Harrison Cowlishaw  Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien Le Touret Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Richebourg-l'Avoué    13,389  Commonwealth nations except India and Canada  1914 to 25 September 1915  casualties in the area prior to the Battle of Loos    John Reginald Truelove  Lord Tyrrell Ploegsteert Memorial CWGC 50px  Belgium  Messines    11,389  United Kingdom and South Africa  October 1914 to September 1918  casualties in and around the Ypres Salient, not major offensives    Harold Chalton Bradshaw  Leopold, Prince of Belgium Vimy Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Vimy    11,169  Canada  entire war, especially April 1917  several battles, especially the Battle of Vimy Ridge    Walter Seymour Allward  Edward VIII Villers-Bretonneux Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Villers-Bretonneux    10,773  Australia  entire war, especially April 1918  several battles, especially the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux    Edwin Lutyens  King George VI Vis-en-Artois Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Vis-en-Artois    9,843  United Kingdom and South Africa  8 August 1918 to 11 November 1918  Advance to Victory    John Reginald Truelove  Rt. Hon. Thomas Shaw Cambrai Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Cambrai    7,056  United Kingdom and South Africa  November and December 1917  Battle of Cambrai    Harold Chalton Bradshaw  Lieutenant-General Sir Louis Vaughan Neuve-Chapelle Memorial CWGC50px  France  Neuve-Chapelle    4,742  India  entire war  several battles    Herbert Baker  Earl of Birkenhead Soissons Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Soissons    3,887  United Kingdom  May 1918 to August 1918  Third Battle of the Aisne and Second Battle of the Marne    Gordon H. Holt and Verner Owen Rees  Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon La Ferté-sous-Jouarre memorial CWGC 50px  France  La Ferté-sous-Jouarre    3,743  United Kingdom  August 1914 to October 1914  Battle of Mons, First Battle of the Marne and the aftermaths    George Hartley Goldsmith  Sir William Pulteney Pulteney Fromelles Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Fromelles    1,296  Australia  July 1916  Battle of Fromelles  ''not specified''  Herbert Baker  ''not specified'' Longueval Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Longueval    1,205  New Zealand  July 1916 to November 1916  Battle of the Somme  ''not specified''  Herbert Baker  ''not specified'' Arras Flying Services Memorial CWGC50px France  Arras    991  Airmen of the RNAS, the RFC, and the RAF  entire war  aerial missions    Edwin Lutyens  Lord Trenchard Messines Ridge Memorial CWGC 50px  Belgium  Messines    827  New Zealand  1917 and 1918  Battle of Messines  ''not specified''  Charles Holden  ''not specified'' Beaumont-Hamel Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Beaumont-Hamel    814  Dominion of Newfoundland  entire war, especially 1 July 1916  entire war, especially Battle of the Somme    Basil Gotto  Earl Haig Nieuport Memorial CWGC 50px  Belgium  Nieuport    547  United Kingdom  1914 and July 1917  Siege of Antwerp and gas attacks at Nieuport   William Bryce Binnie  Sir George Macdonogh Grevillers Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Grévillers    446  New Zealand  21 March 1918 to 11 November 1918  German spring offensive and the Advance to Victory  ''not specified''  Edwin Lutyens  ''not specified'' Polygon Wood Memorial CWGC 50px  Belgium  Zonnebeke    378  New Zealand  September 1917 to May 1918  trench deaths in the Ypres Salient and the Battle of Polygon Wood  ''not specified''  Charles Holden  ''not specified'' Cite Bonjean Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Armentières    47  New Zealand  mostly 1918  battles around Armentières, including the German spring offensive  ''not specified''  Herbert Baker  ''not specified'' Noyelles-sur-Mer Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Noyelles-sur-Mer    41  Chinese Labour Corps  1917 and 1918  Labour support behind the frontline  ''not specified''  Edwin Lutyens  ''not specified'' Marfaux Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Marfaux    10  New Zealand Cyclist Battalion  July 1918  town lost and retaken during the German spring offensive  ''not specified''  ''N/A''  ''not specified'' Zeebrugge Memorial CWGC 50px  Belgium  Zeebrugge    4  three officers and one mechanic of the Royal Navy  23 April 1918  Zeebrugge Raid  ''not specified''  ''N/A''  ''not specified'' Delville Wood Memorial CWGC 50px  France  Longueval    ''none''  South Africa  entire war  Battle of Delville Wood    Herbert Baker  widow of Louis BothaThe total number of names inscribed on the memorials listed here, according to the CWGC figures given above, is 314,176.
National memorials Some memorials were organised by nation, rather than by battlefield. United Kingdom and South African forces are named on the memorials designated for the areas where they fell. The South African national memorial at Delville Wood has no names inscribed on it, as the names are listed on the battlefield memorials instead. The other Commonwealth nations have national memorials dedicated to their missing who fell on the Western Front: the Neuve-Chapelle Memorial to the forces of India; the Vimy Memorial to the forces of Canada and the Beaumont-Hamel Memorial to the forces of Newfoundland; the Villers-Brettonneux Memorial to the forces of Australia; and the Messines Ridge Memorial to the forces of New Zealand (the latter is one of seven memorials on the Western Front dedicated to New Zealanders). The missing war dead of Ireland, at the time of the war still part of the United Kingdom, are numbered among the UK forces (as were English, Scottish and Welsh troops) and listed with them on the memorials. The main memorials to the Irish war dead, one in France and one in Belgium, are the Ulster Tower and the Island of Ireland Peace Park, unveiled in 1921 and 1998 respectively. * Delville Wood Memorial (South Africa)* Vimy Memorial (Canada)* Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australia)* Neuve-Chapelle Memorial (India)* Beaumont-Hamel Memorial (Newfoundland)* Messines Ridge Memorial (New Zealand)
See also * List of Commonwealth War Graves Commission World War II memorials to the missing* Canadian First World War Memorials In Europe (template listing)
References
External links *  World War I memorials to the missing (www.britishwargraves.co.uk)*  World War I memorials to the missing (www.worldwar1.nl)*  World War I memorials to the missing (www.malvernremembers.org.uk)*  World War I memorials to the missing (www.remembering.org.uk)*  Animation of Commonwealth war casualties during World War I (www.geo-animate.com)