A MAJOR bid to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice has been boosted with the addition of new signs at three Evesham cemeteries.
Over the weekend new signs were installed by the Commonwealth War Grave Commission at the entries of the cemeteries at Bengeworth, Hampton and Waterside.
The signs project commenced as part of the centenary of the First World War. The Commission hopes to erect signs at as many churchyards, cemeteries and burial grounds as possible that contain war graves.
Organisers hope to increase awareness of war graves in the UK and to remind the public they need not travel abroad to find Commonwealth commemorations. Some 50 memorials are to be found in Evesham cemeteries alone.
Some families choose to have their deceased buried in family plots along with their own monuments, most of these having died in the UK.
The names of others who are buried elsewhere, particularly abroad, are also to be found on local family monuments.
Local resident Peter Stewart has an extensive database of all those commemorated on Evesham’s war memorials and recently had cause to present case to the War Grave Commission (CWGC).
This involved an Army Lieutenant, Edwin Gordon Cox, who is buried in a private grave with his wife in Bengeworth Cemetery.
The CWGC records showed he died in Rangoon, Burma in 1944 and his name inscribed on the war memorial there.
He died in Hastings, Sussex, whilst riding a motorbike there.
“I presented a photograph of his grave and news cuttings of his death and funeral at Bengeworth cemeterym” Mr Stewart said.
“I also provided a copy of the original entry in an undertakers register in my possession. A charge of £7.17.6 was made to collect his body from Evesham railway station and provide a hearse and car for the funeral at Bengeworth.”
The case has now been resolved and Lieutenant Cox is officially buried in Bengeworth Cemetery. His grave will now be maintained by the CWGC.
The CWGC currently maintains a database of 1.7 million men and women who died during the two World Wars.
