THE CWGC is a global organisation, caring for war graves at 23,000 locations in more than 150 countries and territories, writes Eleanor Phillips.

Following the end of WW1, a vast number of bodies needed to be buried, and there were many thousands more who lay undiscovered or who no longer had intact bodies that could be found.

No official organisation existed to deal with this problem, and eventually the CWGC came into being by Royal Charter. For a full account of the history of the formation of the CWGC or to find details of one of your ancestors who may have died in an international conflict, I recommend a visit to their website -CWGC.org – which contains a great wealth of information and from which source this article was principally researched and written.

Not all war graves are overseas, there are many here in the United Kingdom. I knew there were war graves in Chesham cemetery and imagined the number to be about a dozen, so was astonished to discover that there are actually 36 war graves listed on the CWGC website for Chesham, plus an additional 19 war graves in churchyards and cemeteries in villages surrounding Chesham, making a grand total of 55 war graves in all. Of these, 28 date from WW1 and 27 from WW2, and 54 are for men whilst just one grave is for a woman.

WREN AILEEN MERCY KILBURN died March 18th, 1943 age 19

Only 1% of all the CWGC war graves worldwide are for women, and in Chesham Bois Burial Ground you will find the grave of Aileen Kilburn. She was born and raised in Chesham Bois and went firstly to the village school and then to White Hill Girls School.

In 1941 she applied to join the Royal Navy and after training at Mill Hill was sent to HMS Midge, a Coastal Forces Base in Great Yarmouth. Standards in the Royal Navy were high and Aileen would have been very proud to have been accepted as Wren 42634.

In 1943, HMS Midge had 53 boats based there including mine-layers, motor torpedo boats and motor gun boats used for escorting shipping convoys in the North Sea and for protecting the East Anglian coast. This was known as “E Boat Alley” because the German fast attack boats were operating there. In bad weather at 6.28 am on March 18th, 1943 a lone Luftwaffe Dornier flew over Great Yarmouth and dropped six bombs. One scored a direct hit on a hostel where WRENS were sleeping. The house was destroyed and a fire broke out. Rescuers tunnelled at the wreckage with their bare hands until digging equipment arrived. Thirteen WRENS were rescued unhurt, another 27 were injured and 8 died, including Aileen.

DRIVER LOUIS ARCHIBALD BROWN died February 8th, 1915 age 16

The youngest person with a local war grave is Louis Brown whose grave is listed as being at Chenies Baptist Church. Louis was born in 1899 and lived in Chenies with his parents Ernest (who was a shepherd) and Sarah. He died suddenly at the barracks occupied by his unit, which was the 15th Divisional Ammunition Corps, RFA in Hampshire. At the subsequent inquest, it was revealed that he had been suffering from acute pneumonia which had resulted in heart failure, but although he had been ill for several days, thought it was just a cold and had been reluctant to seek medical advice for fear of letting his unit down. He would have been 17 years old on the following day.

PRIVATE JOHN DELL LACEY died December 22nd, 1915 age 54

John is the oldest person with a local war grave. The son of a shoemaker, John worked as a boot rivetter and lived in Chesham with his wife Emma and their eight children. In 1915 at the age of 54, he decided to join up with the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry (1/1st Buckinghamshire Battalion) and was sent overseas where he was wounded in action and repatriated to England. He died in a London hospital on December 22nd 1915 and is buried in Chesham cemetery.

SERGEANT HUBERT JAMES NEWMAN died April 12th, 1943 age 22

We find Hubert’s war grave in the cemetery in Ashley Green. Before he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, Hubert was an apprentice plasterer working for his father John. The family lived at Orchard Leigh. Hubert was in Unit 3(C)OTU and was a wireless operator and air gunner flying out of a base somewhere in the east of England. He was part of the four man crew of a Wellington bomber which crashed in Lincolnshire on April 12th, 1943.

PILOT OFFICER ANDREW McDOUGALL MELVILLE died February 27th, 1941 age 26

Andrew was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Melville, the Commanding Officer of the Chesham Home Guard. Andrew died on active duty after a successful bombing raid during February 1941. He was 26 years old and married. Prior to joining the RAFVR, he had worked for his father as the manager of their turkey farm in Pednor Bottom.

Andrew was based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and his squadron (83 Squadron) flew Hampden X3124 aircraft. This Handley-Page twin-engine aircraft carried a crew of four – a pilot, a navigator/bomb aimer, a radio operator and a rear gunner. Andrew was the navigator on the plane’s final flight when following a successful bombing raid the plane strayed off track and crashed into high ground near Stafford. The entire crew were killed.

The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) was established in 1936 to support the Royal Air force in the event of another war. It was originally intended as a supplement to the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF), the active reserve for the RAF, by providing an additional non-active reserve. However during WW2 the high demand for air crew absorbed all available RAuxAF personnel and led the RAFVR to become the main pathway of air crew entry into the RAF.