Almost everyone living in the United Kingdom is related to someone, however distant, who served and died in either of the two World Wars. That service man or woman is commemorated in perpetuity somewhere in the world by a headstone or memorial erected and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), originally founded as the Imperial War Graves Commission in 1917 and renamed in 1960.
Mr Grant Pinkerton's talk, entitled ‘Records and Research using the CWGC Archive’, will cover the origins and work of the Commission from foundation to the present day. He will introduce the archives held both in terms of casualties as well as the Commission's own papers which provide an insight into its early years and a number of the decisions made. Using the Casualty Archive, he will look at some of the individuals commemorated with connections to the Kirkintilloch area.
Grant is one of volunteer speakers and tour guides for the Commonwealth Graves Commission as part of the MacRoberts Trust Speakers Programme. His particular area of interest is the First World War but focusing more on the lives of those remembered from the greater Glasgow area.
Some of the documents that can be downloaded from CWGC for a WWI casualty, anticlockwise from top left: the medal card, his/her effects and their disposal, and the commemorative scroll. (© CWGC)  |
| Some of the documents held by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. (© CWGC) |
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| Some of the documents that can be downloaded from CWGC for a WWI casualty, anticlockwise from top left: the medal card, his/her effects and their disposal, and the commemorative scroll. (© CWGC) |
The meeting will be held in the Park Centre, 45 Kerr Street, Kirkintilloch, G66 1LF at 7.30 pm. The annual membership subscription is £10 and visitors are welcome at all of the Society's evening events.
