Empires of the Dead: How One Man’s Vision Led to the Creation of WWI’s War Graves

by David Crane

Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction; the extraordinary and forgotten story behind the building of the First World War cemeteries, due to the efforts of one remarkable and visionary man, Fabian Ware.


Before WWI, little provision was made for the burial of the war dead. Soldiers were often unceremoniously dumped in a mass grave; officers shipped home for burial.


The great cemeteries of WWI came about as a result of the efforts of one inspired visionary. In 1914, Fabian Ware joined the Red Cross, working on the frontline in France. Horrified by the hasty burials, he recorded the identity and position of the graves. His work was officially recognised, with a Graves Registration Commission being set up. As reports of their work became public, the Commission was flooded with letters from grieving relatives around the world.


Critically acclaimed author David Crane gives a profoundly moving account of the creation of the great citadels to the dead, which involved leading figures of the day, including Rudyard Kipling. It is the story of cynical politicking, as governments sought to justify the sacrifice, as well as the grief of nations, following the ‘war to end all wars’.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War I, Biography, War, Death, Biography Memoir

304 pages, Paperback

First published September 26, 2013

About the author

David Crane read history and English at Oxford University before becoming a lecturer at universities in the Netherlands, Japan, and Africa.

He is the acclaimed biographer of Scott of the Antarctic and of Edward Trelawny, companion of Byron and Shelley. He also wrote The Kindness Of Sisters, an account of the relationship between Byron's widow and his sister-in-law, who bore his child. His book, Empires Of The Dead, about Fabian Ware and the building of the First World War cemeteries, was shortlisted for the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.

He lives in northwest Scotland.

There is more than one author by the name David Crane on Goodreads
David Crane: Video Game Designer
David Crane: Screenplays

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The British First World War cemeteries in France and Belgium seem so inevitable now from the distance of a hundred years, so natural, row after row of identical white headstones, serried ranks all facing East (towards the enemy, as they died), all equal in death, no grand monuments to the elevated in rank or title. There is something tremendously beautiful about those cemeteries, a poignancy and a peace that seems very much at odds with how they died. Most cemeteries evoke nothing more than an English country garden, with green lawns, shading trees and herbaceous borders. There is one in Ypres, the Ramparts Cemetery, which could literally be a country garden, with a sloping lawn down to a pond, willow trees, flowers. Somehow the headstones seem to fit.

This was all deliberate, of course, and all the work of the (then) Imperial War Graves Commission and its chief Fabian Ware. Ware started out in France as the head of a Red Cross Ambulance Unit, and as much as recovering live soldiers his work inevitably involved locating and marking the graves of those they could not save. As it would be wont to on the Western Front, the work escalated, and eventually it became a full-time role.

The First World War cemeteries are so much a part of our cultural memory of the war, so much a part of its iconography, that it is easy to forget just how much resistance there was to the concept at all. Many bereaved relatives were dismayed and horrified to learn that they could not bring their loved ones' bodies home, that they could not pay for grand monuments or tombs, that just as they had to sacrifice their sons and brothers and husbands and fathers to the nation in life, they must now do so also in death.

It is testament to Fabian Ware and then (now) Commonwealth War Graves Commission that they overcame this resistance, and the legacy we see now, a hundred years on. The Cenotaph, the Menin Gates, the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, Tyne Cot - all a result of the vision of one man. It is hard to imagine remembering the Great War without these visual reminders. The real genius is how they manage to simultaneously convey the sheer staggering scale of the dead whilst also preserving something of equality and individuality.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

MEH. Crane does a lot of primary source quoting, so his commentary is "cut up" by uninspiring material. Never quite grasped Ware's importance, but he, Ware not Crane, lost me when I learned that: a. Ware saw the War Graves as an imperial mission and b. didn't like the idea of the Unknown Soldier tomb in Westminster Abbey, one of the most moving sites I've ever visited. Definitely could've been a more engaging, more smoothly written account.

[☄ · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fascinating, finely-wrought account. essential reading for anyone interested in the afterlives of the great war dead, and yes, i did, predictably, cry several times whilst reading it ❣️

[Alan Bowker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visitors to Commonwealth War Graves are always moved by the eloquence with which these gardens of the dead convey to the living their profound message of sacrifice and sorrow. It is difficult to imagine how better to convey the tragedy of war in our time. It is therefore startling to realize how recent such things are, how different from the practices of other countries, how much they were the product of the energy, imagination, and determination of one man, Sir Fabian Ware.
In his book Empires of the Dead, David Crane tells the story of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission with fresh insight into how the ideas and values of religion, imperialism, democracy, memory, art and architecture, the family and the nation, intersected, clashed, and harmonized in the creation of these memorials to the fallen.
Ware was a disciple of Lord Milner, whose dream was to unite the British Empire in a great democratic federation that would bring peace and civilization to the world. Individuals would freely serve the great ideals for which the empire stood – ideals that demanded devotion and sacrifice, and got them in spades in the titanic struggle for civilization that was the Great War. They are exemplified in the cemeteries, which are democratic (officers and men have identical grave markers), imperial (the white Dominions all agreed to participate in the project), inclusive (Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindus are all honoured in an architecture which has religious overtones but is not particular to any religion), and noble (the finest architects in Britain designed the cemeteries and the best poetic minds composed the memorial phrases and decided how to commemorate those who had no known graves).
Against such a grand vision opposition must seem petty today. Yet most of us, confronted with the same issues today, might well have opposed this grand scheme, and Crane sympathetically recounts opposing views. Why could not those who could afford it design their own memorials? Why could not men be repatriated to rest in country churchyards or family plots? Why were there no crosses? Why do the cemeteries appear to glorify war by making the mud and waste of the trenches into scenes of pastoral beauty? Were those who had been conscripted in life also to be regimented in death? Were the families that lost their sons to the army also to lose them to this grand vision? A Canadian is constrained to note as well, that while many British families could visit the war graves in Europe, few people from the overseas Dominions would ever see the resting places of their loved ones.
It all makes fascinating reading, and those who find peace and exaltation in these magnificent creations can, through this book, also see the anguish and conflict, the great ideas and clashing visions that lie behind this achievement. This is the best kind of history.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
This was a fascinating account of the story behind the building of the British and Commonwealth war cemeteries following ‘the War to end all Wars’.
I have visited many of these cemeteries in Northern France and Belgium and on entering them I have always been struck by the uniform rows of headstones, laid out in ‘soldierly rows’, each headstone identical in appearance apart from the personal details inscribed on it.
I had absolutely no idea about the story behind how and why these war cemeteries look the uniform way they do. Or indeed the arguments and protests from bereaved families who often wanted to bring their sons home for burial, or put up their own individual memorials in France.
From an early date it was decided that ‘the cemeteries, carefully tended, will rely for their effect on the dignity of their layout and the beauty of the trees, grass and flowers’. I don’t have any argument with that – almost 100 years later their impact is as strong as ever.
The book also explains the story behind the huge stone memorials (usually situated on a hill or ridge) that commemorated the many thousands who were ‘lost’ and had no marked grave. I visited the Thiepval monument last autumn and we could see it for miles as we drove towards it – absolutely the point of course.
I’ve read numerous books about the Great War but this taught me something new on every page. Poignant and very well written – recommended.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having visited many of the cemeteries and memorials mentioned in this book, I found this it to be of great interest because it explained how Britain undertook to remember those who were lost in the Great War. Unfortunately, that war led to another war and even more graves.

[Dropbear123 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5. 260 pages of text plus 30 pages of notes, bibliography and index.

Easy to read. No prior knowledge of the time period needed. Covers topics from the beginning of grave locations being recorded, how they were recorded during the war, and what was done after the war. Also covers the various architectural debates over how Britain's (and its empire) overseas cemetaries and memorials would be designed and the political debates around it . Quite biographical as well as it follows one man, Fabian Ware who was a mix of social campaigner/reformist and rightwing imperialist zealot who was involved in the grave recording from the beginning of the war and was one of the main lobbyists for a Imperial War Graves Commision.

Worth reading imo if the time period interests you.

[Saturday's Child · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting read about an outcome of WWI and the history behind it.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subtitle of the book indicates that it should be about the role of Fabian Ware in creating the Imperial War Graves Commission, which undertook the massive task after the First World War of creating the many cemeteries, both in France and Belgium and on a lesser scale across the globe, of the war dead of the United Kingdom and colonial and Dominion countries that sent troops to serve in Britain's war. The book isn't really a complete treatment of Ware, whose early role is laid out in some detail but who sort of fades out in the later portion of the book, which deals with the actual designing and establishment of the cemeteries along with the attendant controversies. I think a major problem with the book is a breakdown in its overall conception. It isn't about Ware himself (though he is a major focus in the beginning) or about the commission and its task (though the latter part does focus in an unfocused way on that topic). I'm not sure what exactly the book's focus is, and I don't think the author does, either. Particularly in its later pages, the book becomes a sort of Impressionistic story cum evaluation of the commission's actions in laying out those cemeteries.

It has to be said that the author has little sympathy with Ware's personal ideology, which was the Victorian dream/historical dead-end of welding the Dominions into a cohesive world empire under the guidance of the Mother Country. As part of this vision, Ware (who had been an influential newspaper editor during the Edwardian period but had lost his way in the immediate pre-war years after being fired) formed an informal ambulance corps out of vehicles provided for that purpose by various rich people. This organization became involved in dealing with the many (often poorly attended to) dead servicemen who littered northern France, and eventually Ware converted his unofficial ambulance service into an officially recognized organization for preserving the details of the remains of the detritus of the war, both immediately to help the bereaved find out about the disposition of the corpses of their beloved and in the future to make use of those remains as a sort of symbolic memorial to the unity and comradeship of the Dominions via their common sacrifice. A major theme in the development of the cemeteries was the determination of the commission to give all the dead a common variety of commemoration in the myriad cemeteries that sprang up in their multitude across the plains of northern Europe (and elsewhere, like Gallipoli). This met with a fair amount of opposition from those back home who would have preferred to commemorate their dead after their own inclinations. The author makes clear his hostility to the society that exacted this sacrifice and the Imperial ideology that lay behind it.

There is no doubting the emotional power that is inherent in the parliamentary debate about the commission's remit and in the mere description of the massive monuments designed by the likes of Lutyens and Baker. I found a lot of the later parts of the book emotionally draining, but only because of the very nature of the content and the words of the participants themselves, not the commentary of the author himself.

This is very much an Englishman's book, with a lot of allusive reference to British things that may well be less than obvious to a non-Brit.

The meaningless title of the book gives some indication of its lack of overall focus. Is it about the philosophy of the commission's work? An analysis of the thinking of the commission members that led them to come up with their conception? The debate about their conception and the disputes over its implementation? Is it about the role of Ware specifically or about the commission in general? None of this is really worked out, and the overall effect is a rather disjointed. I would guess that it's meant to be a sort of general rumination of all of this, and certainly not a comprehensive history of the commission and its works. The book has a number of "missions" and it's not particularly satisfying at any of them.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a magnificent and even-handed history of how the WW1 British and Commonwealth grave yards came into being. It talks about the political discussions (and complications) as well as the drive that led Ware, who is the 'one man' the book's subheading talks about to push for the equality in death that those graves represent.

We see them in a different light now divorced from Imperial unit, but they're equality has made them more effective as memorials. As Crane himself says:

Anyone who wants to know what the Great War did to people, what politicians, generals and nations could consciously and deliberately do to their own people, should go to Verdun, and peer through the grime-smeared portholes of Douaumont’s monstrous ossuary at the millions of fragments of shattered bones and skulls: anyone, though, who wants to know who those people were need only go to a British cemetery.

But this book is not just about England. Crane makes the point - which I think is overlooked now - that all these graveyards and memorials dot the landscapes of foreign countries from France to Turkey to Libya and beyond and they rely as much on the generosity of those nations and peoples as anything else. They're individuality is rare in history and they are unique in British history.

Crane also points out that Ware's intent to create a place of Imperial equality was eventually really represented by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier who is buried among Kings. The impact and creation of that Tomb is covered in the final chapter of this book despite neither Ware not the IWGC having any say in it. The same applies to the Cenotaph and the hundreds of memorials that stand up and down Britain in villages and towns.

Crane also discusses the discussions about how and where to mark the tens of thousands of dead who have no known grave, which led to monuments such as The Menin Gate and Lutyen's Memorial to the Missing of the Somme about which Crane writes some of his best writing.

It is a fascinating book about how a country that had never really had a standing army had to deal with the deaths of hundreds and thousands of (mostly) men and then deal with how to remember them. The decision not to repatriate their bodies and to not allow families to design their loved ones graves was fought over, but eventually it was settled and what the result is what we see now and which have an emotional impact that is different to what Ware had intended but which is all the more powerful for it.

Especially when you see how snobbery at home led to the Merchant Marine memorial being shoved out of the way:

Abroad, all could be treated equally: at home, Blomfield advised the Office of Works, men should be ‘classed according to their occupations’ and commemorated accordingly in some appropriate place. On this basis, the Fine Arts Commission suggested Tower Hill for Lutyens’s memorial as the area was ‘devoted to sea-going occupations’ with the result that it is the least well known of all the great First World War memorials. The decision infuriated Lutyens. The thousand men commemorated on it deserved the same treatment as everyone else, he insisted, not some ‘hole in the corner because they happen to have been low in social status’. Let the beggars be commemorated in Parliament, he added, and ‘the Earls at Shoreditch or better to the Tower’.

Highly recommended.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded down on the basis that there was very little to distinguish between the author's beliefs and the facts of the matter. It feels almost like the author wants to treat Ware as a superhero who single handedly raised the war graves, but even while telling the story from this point of view it seems that the facts don't line up. One of the herculean efforts listed by the author is the energy Ware focussed on maintaining control in the face of other people trying to do the same thing. Was he then solely responsible only because he wouldn't let anyone else be?

On the same note of the author's interpretation of Ware, it feels like they want to describe Ware as the main driving force, but he largely doesn't make an appearance in the second half, when the lead is instead taken by others such as Kenyon, parliament etc. While Ware is portrayed as vital to the initiation of the graves project, it is tough to say that he was the main character through to the end.

The facts of the novel are often clouded by the author's own artistic vision. It is tough to distinguish between the genuine public feeling about the Menin Gate vs. the Thiepval Memorial, and the fact that the author just can't get enough of Lutyens. Equally, the author produces contemporary concerns about the behavious and actions of the Graves Commission, but frequently writes them off as crankery and unduly antagonistic, when in reality many very legitimate concerns were raised.

The only saving grace against the author's clear bias in places is his over-reliance on contemporary sources. While it is often good to be able to compare the author's account with sources, it feels in this case that they may make up the bulk of the actual content, with the author just placing them in order and adding his own biases on top. I also wasn't a stylistic fan of the way the sources were introduced, with a sentence fragment, context, then the rest of the source - this worked sometimes, but felt strained in places where it didn't really make sense.

All in all the subject matter was interesting, and I did end up doing a lot of extra looking into the background of much of what the author discussed, but I had severe misgivings about the way the material was presented.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have ever seen or visited the cemeteries of the UK and Commonwealth dead of WWI it is almost impossible not to be awed by them, and by the human cost of war. They still attract droves of visitors, a surprising number searching out the graves of relatives that, by this stage were known names to only grandparents. They were designed as a means of cementing empire, which they utterly failed to do, yet they speak to the young today in ways their originator have imagined.

That the cemeteries exist as they do was the work of one man, Fabian Ware, who despite limitations created an idea that was unique and powerful but was also hated and argued against fiercely, that all the dead should lie together as near as possible (and that included those shit for cowardice) all commemorated the same way private and officer alike. It was only when they were built that those who fought so hard against them realised their error and how right they were (amazingly strong parrellels with the Vietnam War memorial in Washington).

WWI has a unique place in the cultural memory of the UK (and France and other European countries) that is still extraordinarily alive and relevant and is not something Americans understand. But no matter who you are this book should explain or enlighten on an amazing creation.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I acknowledge my bias: Sir Arthur Fabian Goulstone Ware is my second cousin 3x removed! Of course, this is why I picked up the book, but long before I knew this fact I was fascinated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, as I am with other vast websites that aid seekers to uncover the stories of their personal past. So, I enjoyed the read - and the clues it gives to my own historical links with the Plymouth Brethren - despite the tendency of the author to get swept up in his story and be a little difficult to follow at times.

[John Garlington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

I cannot fault the research and the standard of writing in this book. Tyne Cot is sometimes referred to as the City of The Dead and I thought this was going to be an account of the CWGC plans and execution of the war cemeteries as in “Empire”. It really is that but a great deal of it is about Ware, Kipling and others with a great deal of their imperial sentiments included. I presume that is what the “Empire” means.

[David Vernon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flashes of fascinating information are buried underneath academic dross. I only kept reading in the hope of finding more intriguing flashes, but they were few and far between. He explained eloquently why FWW graves were such a new phenomenon but that was about it. So much more could have been made of this subject but Crane seemed to simply fall into Ware worship making the book overall pretty tedious going.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book, but was rather disappointed in the content. The author just didn't seem to be able to move the story line ahead...every chapter, even every few pages... seemed to just rehash the same material. It is an interesting topic that I've not seen covered.elsewhere. For as short as this book was, it was painful for me to read and took way to long to finish.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 I was looking forward to this, it's an interesting aspect of world war one, but it took a while to get into it, as the writing was too dry and therefore I am slightly disappointed. I had no idea how the CWGC started and it was and remains an incredible achievement, whatever the original (imperial) intention.

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crane examines the life of Fabian Ware and the organization that eventually became the Imperial War Graves Commission. He was tasked with identifying and memorializing the dead after (and sometimes during) the battles of World War One. Lots of contemporary sources and detailed politics. Good read for Remembrance Sunday.

[Birgitta Hoffmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well researched and referenced book on the history and politics of what became the Commonwealth War graves commission, told very much from the perspective of its 'founder' or first leader Fabian Ware, but focusing only on his involvement with the organisation.

[Laura Poppenwimer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a very hard read, it just seems to plod along, dry history at best. Very unusual for me, but I just couldn't finish this.

[Ness · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating!

[ROBERT]

strange topic of over 100 years ago. In some cases there is more information than one needs to know.

[Liv Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb and utterly thought provoking. The gut wrenching question of ‘what are we doing to do with all of the dead?’ - wow, you just can’t even imagine. Lots of inspiration for my own writing.

[Stuart B. Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the end of the Great War across the UK there remained large numbers of devastated parents, partners and sibblings morning the loss of loved ones whose mortal remains, if they could be located at all, lay in the mud of France and Flanders. How could this collective grief be expressed in a meaningful way whilst at the same time honouring the fact that so many of these men fought and died alongside friends and comrades. This book tells that story of how these issues were resolved through the vision and tenacity of Fabian Ware. A moving account of a relatively unknown hero and the imense issues of grief and logistics he faced. Highly commended

[Caroline Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating history, told with a confident mastery of the facts. I was really impressed by the standing back sweep of the narration here and there was so much to this story that I didn’t know. Enthusiastically recommended to anyone with an interest in the aftermath of the First World War. Impressive in the fullest sense.

[Hillingdon Libraries]

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[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting read about the politics and conflicts during and after the First World War over the concepts, design and establishment of the Commonwealth cemeteries, the Cenotaph and the tomb of The Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey.

[Larry Schwartz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn interesting.

[Pat Handley]

Didn't finish

[Marley · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF - Unfortunately, there were too many references that this non-military/historian didn't understand. When a passage references Calvinism without an explanation, I was done.