The sheer number of war cemeteries means you will encounter many on any tour of the Western Front. Their beauty and tranquillity are admired by all who visit. But it is easy to miss their unique features and qualities. You will see these with new eyes, as I have spent forty years researching these sites, examining the plans of the architects, studying the documents in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission archives, and, crucially, walking the landscapes in which they sit.
A tour with this theme will unlock a new depth of understanding by showing you how to identify the precise intention of the architect through the form and horticulture of a cemetery. This will both enhance your experience and reveal the complexity of the Commission's project.
Most of the cemeteries were designed by a team of junior architects, all of whom were veterans of the fighting on the Western Front, working at the then Imperial War Graves Commission’s France headquarters in St. Omer. As veterans of the fighting, these architects often imbued their designs with subtle features that refer back to the battlefields as they knew them.
You will walk in the footsteps of these people, an experience that will show you how their thinking and their designs were influenced by the battlefields as they knew them, so that you can navigate and experience them as they intended.
