The ongoing coronavirus crisis means that this year's season of remembrance will be much different, with no parades or pilgrimages to battlefields and cemeteries overseas.

But, as reporter Rhys Griffiths discovers, the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission means there are still places to remember the sacrifice of the fallen closer to home here in Kent.

To conjure up an image of war graves is often to picture the row upon row of gleaming white headstones at Tyne Cot, where almost 12,000 killed in the First World War are laid, or the memorial to the missing of the Somme at Thiepval. Their sheer scale a testament to the horrendous cost of conflict.

But the graves of the fallen are not only to found in monumental plots in corners of foreign fields. In fact they can be found in communities the length and breadth of Kent, in their hundreds in military cemeteries and sometimes alone, at rest in the yard of a village church.

What unites them all is the care and management given to these final resting places of the fallen by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) which, at more than 23,000 locations in more than 150 countries, commemorates the 1.7 million Commonwealth servicemen and women who died during both world wars.

And in these strange times, the CWGC is encouraging people to learn more about the graves and memorials local to them, both online and - where safe to do so in line with Covid-19 restrictions - in person at sites managed by the CWGC.

"This year has been like no other, and sadly this will have an impact on the usual traditions around Remembrance Sunday," Barry Murphy, the CWGC’s director general, said.

"The British public has already shown this year that with the smallest of gestures we can still find a way to thank the bravest among us.

"The Commonwealth War Graves Commission cares for war graves at more than 12,500 locations in the UK, and this means at a time when many of us are staying in our local areas, there is a still a way for us all to connect to our local world war heritage."

As part of their Our War Graves, Your History campaign, the CWGC has created online tools to allow people to explore the history of wartime memorials here at home.

One of the featured sites is the Chatham Naval Memorial, which lists the names of more than 18,500 service personnel who have no grave but the sea.

The Chatham monument is one of three built following the First World War to honour those who had died at sea in that conflict. When someone enlisted in the Royal Navy they were allocated to a particular 'manning port' for administrative purposes, so an Admiralty committee recommended each of the three manning ports in Great Britain, at Plymouth, Chatham and Portsmouth, should have an identical memorial to bear the names of their naval personnel lost at sea.

These unmistakable obelisks would be a recognisable landmark for all ships using those ports, therefore keeping the memory of the dead in daily view.

The Chatham Naval Memorial, unveiled in 1924, commemorates the names of more than 8,500 naval dead of the First World War, and a later extension also records the names of more than 10,000 men and women of the Commonwealth who died while serving in the Royal Navy in the Second World War.

Another CWGC site which features in this year's campaign during the season of Remembrance is Dover St James Cemetery, whose hundreds of war graves speak of the port town's place on the front line in times of conflict across the Channel.

And while every individual's sacrifice is a personal story of loss for one family, there are some graves which bring home with extra force the losses endured by so many during both world wars.

At the Dover cemetery, buried side by side, lie a father and son. James Kirton served in the Royal Navy and died in November 1918, aged 27, just days before the signing of the Armistice which brought the conflict to a close.

'Pay your own personal pilgrimage to a war grave...'

His son David Kirton, born following his father's death, served in the Royal Air Force and died during the Battle of Britain in 1940, aged just 21.

In Bekesbourne, at St Peter's Church, there is a lone war grave, that of William Goldup, who served with the Royal Field Artillery and lost his life five days after the war officially ended.

While in Herne Bay Cemetery, buried in a joint grave, lie John Spellen - and member of the Home Guard - and his daughter Eileen, a 26-year-old serving as a nurse. They were both killed in 1944 in a an accident on Bishopstone Range when an unexploded grenade went off, killing the father and daughter and two others.

"We’re encouraging people to seek out the stories in their local area, using the new Our War Graves, Your History digital resources," the CWGC director general said.

"By visiting our website you can read about the world war heritage in your nearest CWGC sites, download self-guided tours and find the tools to plan a visit and pay your own personal pilgrimage to a war grave."

War graves in our county are not only places of eternal rest for British casualties of the two global conflicts of the 20th century. The dead of other nations are also cared for and remembered at sites in Kent.

At Shorncliffe Military Cemetery in Folkestone there are numerous graves of Canadian servicemen and women, who were based at the nearby barracks. And only a short distance away in the town's Cheriton Road cemetery is a memorial to the 284 men who lost their lives when the German ship SMS Grosser Kurfürst sank in the English Channel in May 1878.

So although trips to the battlefields of France and Belgium might not be possible, and Remembrance Sunday parades may be cancelled, there is no reason individuals cannot find a moment to reflect and remember a little closer to home this year.

To learn more about the Our War Graves, Your History project, visit the CWGC website

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