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? Any help will be greatly appreciated Terry Evans

If I can dare to add to Forrest's comments: If a family at the time said that they did not want an inscription, then one can never be added. If at the time the family did not answer the request, then a family could later (and, I believe, still can) add an inscription. I suspect that only obscenities were not allowed. I must admit I have never counted to see how many letters were used, but there are some very factual inscriptions: SHOT AT DAWN was allowed, and Kingston's youngest deceased simply had his parents' names and address. Peter

The British Government levied a charge for the inscription, of three and a half pence [old pennies] for each letter [or should that be 'threepence ha'penny!], up to a maximum cost of £1. Many relatives, even if they wanted an inscription, could not afford this, and so the headstone remained blank. This charge was unpopular and later became an optional contribution, and continued to be so up to WW2, when eventually it was abandoned. Sue Sue Light [Lancing, West Sussex]

I think we are really fortunate to have the one's we have. Here's one that I'm glad was allowed over the 60 letter limit. I have a photo of this grave over my desk and it reminds me daily the grief the family of the dead must of felt. Capt H.W.M. Thomas 1-7-1916 Age 24 HE WAS BUT WORDS FAIL TO SAY WHAT THINK WHAT A GOOD SON SHOULD BE AND HE WAS THAT My g'grandparents left me this on the grave of their son Pte E.G. Vaux MM. HE DIED FOR US I think it was wonderful that the "US" is so ambiguous. Paul ----- Original Message ----- From: "Terry Evans" <terry_evans@btinternet.com> To: "ww1" <greatwar-l@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 12:35 PM Subject: [GREATWAR] Headstone Inscriptions > 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? > Any help will be greatly appreciated > Terry Evans > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > GREATWAR-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message