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The principle of burying bodies where they fell had been agreed
by the British government at a relatively early stage, despite protest
from some bereaved relatives who wanted to bury their own dead.
As the newly formed Imperial War Graves Commission stated, "A
higher ideal than that of private burial at home is embodied in
these war cemeteries in foreign lands, where those who fought and
fell together, officers and men, lie together in their last resting
place, facing the line they gave their lives to maintain".
However it soon became obvious that bereaved relatives would want
to visit the war graves, so immediately after the Armistice, General
Booth established a department, under the direction of Mrs Commissioner
Higgins, to escort them on their "Pilgrimages of Remembrance".
Ada worked for this department from its earliest days, mainly from
the Salvation Army Red Shield Hostel for Graves Visitation in Rue
Michelet, Arras. It involved travelling to England to meet with
parties of bereaved relatives, and escorting them to Folkestone
and then across the Channel.
They then travelled to a "Hostel of Consolation" near
one of the many cemeteries in the region.
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The battlefields in France and Flanders covered a vast expanse,
and many of the burial places were in isolated areas. Many who made
the pilgrimage were elderly women, or widows with young families,
who would otherwise have been unable to go.
Officers like Ada, who had worked in France during the war, and
were thus acquainted with the country, accompanied them either on
foot or by car, and helped them to find the stone or cross which
identified the burial place of their relative.
The work must have been arduous and harrowing, travelling through
areas devastated by the war. She collected a large number of postcards
showing the devastation in the areas where she was working, annotating
them on the back e.g. "This is how Abbeville was when I
was in it last year but with bombs, not shells (1919)".
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Another aspect of the work was grave photography.
Salvation Army "sisters" would visit cemeteries on behalf
of those unable to travel, and put flowers on the graves on their
behalf. A photograph would then be taken and this would be sent, with
a card containing a few pressed flowers and a letter, to the bereaved
family.
A letter from Staff Captain
Mary Booth, now in the Imperial War Museum Collection, written
in October 1918 (before the Armistice), to a Mrs Carter states;"
Some of our comrades visited the Cemetery where your dear one rests
on Wednesday and took the opportunity of placing a few fresh flowers
on his grave on your behalf. Although I fear they will be very faded,
I enclose a few on a card, feeling sure you would like them, seeing
they have actually been on the spot so dearly treasured in your heart".
She goes on to describe the "beautifully cared for" cemetery
before asking God to comfort and bless the family. |
Ada tending the grave of Lt. Colonel George Bisset, D.S.O.,
M.C., of the 1st Bn. Royal Scots Fusiliers at the Grevillers British
Cemetery, Pas de Calais.
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Ada continued with this work until 1923, by which time most of
the burials had been concentrated into larger cemeteries, under
the auspices of the C.W.G.C. (Formally the I.W.G.C.).
Pilgrimages to the War Cemeteries continue to this day though in
a slightly different form as they tend to now be organised by specialist
tour guides.
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Cemeteries then and now
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Group 3
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