A Special Committee headed by Sir Tim Hitchens and appointed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) in December 2019, has published its findings and recommendations on the early history of the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC). The Committee’s objective was to identify inequalities in IGWC’s commemoration of the deceased people of the British Empire from the two world wars and to provide recommendations to guide the CWGC towards remedying the same.

The IWGC was founded in 1917 to commemorate the deceased people of the British Empire from the First World War. It was mandated to follow the principle of equality in treatment in death, meaning that an individual would be commemorated identically irrespective of their rank in social or military life or their religious identity. The Committee found that while this promise was upheld for European personnel, the same was not extended to their Indian and African counterparts. It estimated “between 45,000 and 54,000 casualties (predominantly Indian, East African, West African, Egyptian and Somali personnel) were commemorated unequally.” Further, as many as 350,000 casualties (predominantly, but not exclusively, East African and Egyptian personnel) were not commemorated by name or possibly not commemorated at all. The same would amount to 33% of those who currently named in the casualty database for the First World War.

While the report acknowledged difficult circumstances, it unreservedly noted that IWGC “is responsible for these shortcomings – either because of its own decision making or its complicity in the decision making of other authorities,” because it chose to not stand by its principles in “the belief that communities these men came from would not recognize or value such individual forms of commemoration.”

The report highlights the ramifications of imperial prejudice on IWGC operations across Africa, the Middle East, and India:

As well as denying these casualties an individual place of commemoration, this outcome has also hidden the true cost of the First World War to specific communities. As a result, the total number of war dead presented…is wrong.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has offered an “unreserved apology” on behalf of the Government to the families of the deceased soldiers.  The Special Committee has proposed measures such as commitments to transparency, continuing the search for the unnamed war dead and those potentially not commemorated, community engagement, and providing the correct historical context for existing memorials. The CWGC’s ability in achieving the suggested reforms remains to be seen.