CWGC Eyes On Hands On volunteers

Since retiring I've signed up for and got stuck into the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's "Eyes On Hands On" volunteer programme.

In essence there's loads of folks who , after the required training, look after the CWGC assets in their allocated/chosen cemeteries. It is as simple as visiting with the list of assets printed out, checking on the state of those assets, doing any minor cleaning of headstones and removing any overgrown greenery to reveal the asset for all to view. The headstones are referred to assets by the way as some are wholly owned by the CWGC but many are private memorials which are administered by and managed by the CWGC where families declined a standard white headstone.

I find it both rewarding and beneficial to the families who may be looking for lost relatives, and anyone researching the first and second wars. But... the CWGC are still looking for volunteers. There's thousands of sites with enourmous numbers of assets to keep an eye on.

If it's something that floats your boat and you've a couple of hours spare hither and yon, it's well worth registering your interest here: https://www.cwgc.org/our-work/volunteer/

As an example, here in Manchester there is one cemetery with over 350 assets to look after, and that is some task! I look after two locations which take me a year to cover and they have less than 160 between them. Once they are catalogued and photographed ( uploaded to the CWGC site for all to see) , that's the actual work complete. After that it's maintenance and reporting of any damages, any where tree roots are threatening to tip headstones over, and where weathering is starting to obscure the details.

i am interested in this . but will have to wait a couple of years until I retire.

I could do this at the British war graves in my area of the south of France, but, I complained to them about the state of some of the WW1 graves in the cemetery in Gillingham, Dorset once and they said it was being left to nature. Apparently nature means 4 foot high nettles with no access.
Despite serving the country for the whole of my life, I won't bother.

That's not good to hear at all. Any chance you could give me a more accurate location please? I will take it up with whomever?
But please be aware : We are only responsible for the actual CWGC assets, not the land and/or plot that they are located in, or for access to that area. Bit of an ongoing saga with this one.
If the land is no longer maintained by the responsible body ( like if a church is de-consecrated and demolished for example) then the assets within that land still remain under the auspices of the CWGC and will still be looked after accordingly. However, if the landowner objects to our presence, then there are mechanosms in place to remove the asset to a location that is more accessible and gives the casualty the dignity and respect they deserve. I hope I can get this resolved. Andy