27 October 2020
Replacement headstones installed at Brookwood Military Cemetery
For us at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, remembrance is a year-round job. In many parts of the world we would normally see increased attention at this time year as communities prepare for their annual Remembrance Day traditions. Despite most events being cancelled or scaled back this year, our teams are still working in the sites under their care.
At Brookwood Military Cemetery, our largest cemetery in the United Kingdom, one of our recent tasks has been replacing 20 Commonwealth headstones throughout the cemetery. Headstones are only replaced if they’ve weathered to the point of becoming illegible and they cannot be re-engraved, or a correction is needed to a casualty’s commemoration. Taking a conservation-based approach means that we aim when possible to maintain and care for the original headstones.
Replacing the headstone of Sergeant Henry John Tollast
In total, the headstones of 17 RAF Casualties from the Second World War, 2 Second World War Canadian casualties and 1 First World War Australian casualty were replaced. This video footage focusses on the headstone of Sergeant Henry John Tollast who served in the RAF Volunteer Reserve and died on 14 August 1944, aged 18.
There are over 5,000 Commonwealth and almost 800 war graves of other nationalities at Brookwood, as well as two memorials, one that commemorates Commonwealth casualties from the First World War and one for casualties of the Second World War.
Alongside the replacement headstones, our staff at Brookwood have been working hard across the site, carrying turf maintenance, border cultivation and weeding and also preparing for upcoming drainage improvements on the Brookwood 1939-1945 Memorial and liaising with a team of specialised tree surgeons to work on a damaged branch of one of the Giant Redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum) that stand in the cemetery.
We have a team of gardeners based at Brookwood and mobile teams who travel out to work on some of our other locations in the South East. This includes sites like Runnymede Memorial and Hollybrook Memorial through to plots and single headstones in churchyards ensuring that the team are a hive of activity in the lead up to Armistice.