Radnor Street Cemetery volunteers

This Thursday morning you are likely to find members of the Radnor Street Cemetery volunteers busy in the cemetery. Here are a few words from Kevin explaining some of the work the volunteers undertake.

‘There are currently seven volunteers working in Radnor Street Cemetery. These include Jon, Jonathan, Brian, Pauline, Val, Jo and myself.

We are volunteering in an official capacity for the CWGC as part of their Eyes On Hands On project. The Commission is responsible for 103 plots at the cemetery, 90 WWI and 13 WWII, of these there are 101 Commonwealth and 12 private. Basically, it is up to us to look after these plots and feedback any concerns to the Commission such as illegibility, damage, unsafe leaning etc.

We are authorised to softly clean the Commonwealth headstones, using just water and brushes, and carry out light weeding, grass trimming etc. For the private memorials we should only carry out only light weeding and not clean the headstones, but feed back to the Commission.

Of the casualties at the cemetery a lot of them died from illness, but there are also those who died in accidents or more sadly those who took their own lives often following the horrors they had experienced.

We have recently been photographing all of the headstones and memorials for the Commission website. The Commission now try and include photographs on their casualty database, which people can search.

Outside of the Commission’s responsibility there are also many private family plots at the cemetery that we have come across that make reference to loved family members lost during the two wars.

The first two images show a little bit about the Eyes On Hands On project. The next photo is a private plot commemorating 2nd Lt W.S. Hunter, Royal West Kent Regiment. The second photo is a Commonwealth headstone marking the grave of Pte K.W. Scott-Browne, sadly killed in a flying accident whilst training for D Day. The last photo is a family grave for Mildred Cook, commemorating her husband Hubert James Cook, killed in action during WWI.’

Read more about the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission here.