| ADEGEM CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY | BENY-SUR-MER CEMETERY REVIERS FRANCE | RYES WAR CEMETERY | BROOKWOOD MILITARY CEMETERY | BRETTEVILLE-SUR-LAIZE CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY |
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| SCHOONSELHOF CEMETERY |
BERGEN-OP-ZOOM CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY |
HOLTEN CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY |
GROESBEEK CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY | BAYEUX WAR CEMETERY |
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BROOKWOOD MILITARY CEMETERY
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Locality: | Surrey |
| Location Information: | Brookwood is 30 miles from London (M3 to Bagshot and then A322). The main entrance to Brookwood Military Cemetery is on the A324 from the village of Pirbright. |
| Historical Information: | During the two world wars, the United Kingdom became an island fortress used for training troops and launching land, sea and air operations around the globe. There are more than 170,000 Commonwealth war graves in the United Kingdom, many being those of servicemen and women killed on active service, or who later succumbed to wounds. Others died in training accidents, or because of sickness or disease. The graves, many of them privately owned and marked by private memorials, will be found in more than 12,000 cemeteries and churchyards. BROOKWOOD MILITARY CEMETERY is owned by the Commission and is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the United Kingdom, covering approximately 37 acres. In 1917, an area of land in Brookwood Cemetery (The London Necropolis) was set aside for the burial of men and women of the forces of the Commonwealth and Americans, who had died, many of battle wounds, in the London district. This site was further extended to accommodate the Commonwealth casualties of the Second World War. There is a large Royal Air Forces section in the south-east corner of the cemetery (which also contains the graves of Czech and American airmen who served with the Royal Air Force) and the Air Forces shelter building nearby houses the register of the names of those buried in the section. A plot in the west corner of the cemetery contains approximately 2,400 Canadian graves of the Second World War including those of 43 men who died of wounds following the Dieppe Raid in August 1942. The Canadian Records building, which was a gift of the Canadian government, houses a reception room for visitors and other offices. In addition to the Commonwealth plots, the cemetery also contains French, Polish, Czech, Belgian and Italian sections, and a number of war graves of other nationalities, all cared for by the Commission. The American Military Cemetery is the responsibility of the American Battle Monuments Commission. Brookwood Military Cemetery now contains 1,601 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 3,476 from the Second World War. The war graves of other nationalities in the Commission's care number 786. The BROOKWOOD MEMORIAL stands at the southern end of the Canadian section of the cemetery and commemorates 3,500 men and women of the land forces of the Commonwealth who died during the Second World War and have no known grave, the circumstances of their death being such that they could not appropriately be commemorated on any of the campaign memorials in the various theatres of war. They died in the campaign in Norway in 1940, or in the various raids on enemy occupied territory in Europe such as Dieppe and St Nazaire. Others were special agents who died as prisoners or while working with Allied underground movements. Some died at sea, in hospital ships and troop transports, in waters not associated with the major campaigns, and a few were killed in flying accidents or in aerial combat. As an agency service on behalf of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, the Commission also maintains a plot of the graves of Chelsea Pensioners, which is situated adjacent to the Military Cemetery, and a small plot containing the graves of 12 members of the nursing services in the adjoining Brookwood Cemetery is also in the Commission's care. |
| No. of Identified Casualties: | 6979 |
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