Launch of the Army Children Graves Register

Shorncliffe Military Cemetery, Kent
(© Peter Malan).

There was a time when their wives and children accompanied British soldiers on active service, and it is well documented that many died on the march (for example, during the Peninsular War’s retreat to Corunna, in Spain, from 1808 to 1809). Britain also once had an extensive empire that required defending, which is why the last resting places of numerous army children can be found in such far-flung countries as Malta, Hong Kong, Ireland and India, where they had often died of indigenous diseases. And in recent times, it has been (West) Germany – ‘home’ for many army children over the past century – that has primarily provided the foreign fields where British soldiers’ children who died prematurely now lie.

Just as The Army Children Archive (TACA) is unique in its focus on the lives and times of British army children from the seventeenth century to date, so the Army Children Graves Register (http://www.archhistory.co.uk/taca/gravesregister.html) is the only record dedicated to tracking the graves and memorials of the children of British soldiers, wherever in the world they may have died. Set up on 23 May 2011, partly in response to requests for help from relatives searching for army children’s graves, and partly as an aid to researchers, the aim of placing on record the names of this category of youngsters commemorated on gravestones and memorials (which are always at risk of weathering and destruction) is to ensure that they will not vanish into obscurity. And although it already contains hundreds of names from military cemeteries at home and abroad, thousands more remain unlisted, and TACA welcomes additions.

Making its debut alongside the Army Children Graves Register is the ‘Army children’s graves’ page (http://www.archhistory.co.uk/taca/graves.html), which includes advice from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and Ministry of Defence (MoD) on to how go about locating an individual army child’s grave, along with images of army children’s graves in the UK and abroad, personal stories, and some useful links.