Read on Twitter
Not sure what to make of the 'people in Edwardian institution were a bit racist' CWGC 'shocker'. But this I would say. If you honestly believe that this organisation has stayed unswervingly true to its constitutional aim of treating all war dead in its care equally, you need.. 1/ https://twitter.com/CWGC/status/1385128295616892930
look no further than the celebrated and much questioned case of the putative grave of John Kipling, son of Rudyard. While CWGC applies very strict - some might say too strict - rules to the identification of unknown war dead, such strictness doesn't seem to have been quite so 2/
...rigorously applied or observed in the Kipling case. Yet CWGC chooses not to address this. At the time I suspect the organisation got caught up in a PR maelstrom (largely of its own making) and found itself in a position where it was far too embarrassing to back track. It... 3/
...could do so now, but chooses not to. 'Treat all equally', right? So surely the fact that this was a massively publicised case of a celebrated individual couldn't have anything to do with CWGC's decisions then and now? When the Thiepval visitor centre was opened it was... 4/
the great grandson of an officer remembered on the memorial who was chosen to be the 'face' of the official opening. I was disappointed, but not surprised. By far and away the majority of the names on Thiepval are *not* those of officers! So what do we conclude? CWGC is an... 5/
organisation run by human beings. It's fallible and likely to make mistakes. But those can be addressed, rectified and not repeated - if the organisation has the guts to do so. Wouldn't it be great if the CWGC ‘board’, for example, didn't just comprise the usual well-connected 6/
...suspects? How about having some ordinary people in there? Most of the war dead the organisation has in its care were just ordinary folk, after all. But I digress. As a boy of 5 or 6 (regrettably a rather long time ago!), when I first wandered between rows of eye-achingly... 7/
gleaming white headstones, I was struck, I remember, by the headstones of Indian and other Commonwealth troops. The strange writing and symbols that meant little to me. But were inescapably different. The graves of Chinese labourers. Who were they? What was their story? It... 8/
made me interested. And it also, whether knowingly or not, made me think that here was something which was about as un-racist as I could, at the time, imagine. And this was in an era when the National Front was just a normal part of society and not one eyelid was batted at... 9/
casual racism. So what's the point of this diatribe? Not sure there is one. Except that if you honestly believe that CWGC has historically, or even arguably does now, treat all the war dead for which it is responsible equally, then I'd say you're a little bit delusional. And 10/
I speak as one who has at least two relatives that I know of named on CWGC memorials, for which I am extremely grateful. But organisations can change if they really want to. They can redress errors and re-balance. Concentrate on their core activities, not get distracted with 11/
...trying to be 'relevant' to people who don't really know the organisation or care about it or what it does. Spend a bit less time sending out packets of seeds maybe. But the organisation has to see the need and have the desire to do better. Let's see if it does. 12/12
