On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:35:48 +0100, "Terry Evans" <terry_evans@btinternet.com> wrote: >On some of the CWGC headstones there are inscriptions added at the families request, does anyone have details on the "rules" governing these additional insciptions? "Courage Remembered: The story behind the construction and maintenance of the Commonwealth's Military Cemeteries and Memorials of the Wars of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945", by MAJOR EDWIN GIBSON MBE and G KINGSLEY WARD has a couple of paragraphs about this: ------------------------ When the Commission got in touch with the next of kin to check the details it intended to inscribe on the headstone, it invited them to provide a personal inscription of up to 60 letters. (But not in the case of New Zealand war dead, as its government decided that their headstones should have no personal inscription. There are, however, a few exceptions – in Courcelles-au-Bois Cemetery, France, for example.) These are often poignant, expressing as they do the family's feelings of grief and loss: L. CPL. H.G. CROSS "FINE SON, WHOSE FATHER WAS KILLED AT ARRAS 1918" PRIVATE L.W. DWANEY AGE 18 "HE WENT TO WAR SO YOUNG A LAD" Some are in a different vein: the headstone in Brookwood Military Cemetery marking the grave (XXI A 11) of Pilot Officer Ken Farnes RAF (VR), a famous cricketer, reads: 'HE DIED AS HE LIVED – PLAYING THE GAME" -------------------------- The 60 letter limit wasn't rigidly enforced, as one of the CWGC gravestones near me has the following inscription at the bottom, which has 64 characters (without spaces): DEARLY LOVED HUSBAND OF MURIEL MITCHELL AND BELOVED SON OF ALEX. AND ANN ROSS Forrest -- Forrest Anderson, Edinburgh, Scotland. E-mail: forrest@military-researcher.com Website: www.military-researcher.com Forrestdale Research - Military Genealogical Researcher