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Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Established by Royal Charter in 1917, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission pays tribute to the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two world wars. Since its inception, the Commission has constructed 2,500 war cemeteries and plots.

Crofton was commissioned to provide structural engineering services by the non-profit-making organisation to inspect and restore a number of cemeteries in the Somme in north east France.

Work commenced at the famous Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial site, near the town of Albert, which commemorates Canadian forces killed during World War I.  A staff house located on the site was experiencing problems with its Canadian West Red Cedar cladding since local woodpeckers had caused considerable damage by boring holes in it. This meant that the roof of the building was leaking badly and needed to be re-clad.

Crofton developed a re-cladding proposal that would be resistant to the woodpeckers. Our team selected an appropriate cladding material, a composite imitation Shingle, and ensured that the building's structure could support the weight of the new cladding.

Another project was undertaken at the Brown's Road Military Cemetery, which was largely destroyed in the May 1915 Battle of Festubert. Recent residential development on land surrounding the cemetery had altered the natural pattern of land drainage, which appeared to have caused flooding at the immaculately maintained site.

Our commission was to compile an expert witness report examining the land drainage in the area to assess what had caused the flooding and provide a solution to put forward to the local mayor. Part of the research of the drainage system involved looking at the old First World War military mapping, and we discovered that the original drainage system had been in existence since 1916.

It became apparent that the development had filled in an historic drainage ditch that previously connected that cemetery back to the wider ditch network, which drains the otherwise waterlogged ground. The best solution was to dig another drain and install a pipe in a gravel-filled trench to drain the flooded area to an alternative main ditch nearby. The local mayor has agreed to fund the recommended remedial works directly since receiving the report.