Renovation is currently underway on the tree-lined approach to The South Africa (Delville Wood) National Memorial.

The line of Oak trees often require special attention from our horticultural team, as they were planted in 1925.

Twenty-five of the trees are currently in need of maintenance – including the removal of any dead or damaged branches.

Once the branches have been removed, any cut wood is crushed and used in our compost.

Damage was caused to trees and hedges at Massicault War Cemetery last Friday when a fire, fanned by strong winds, burnt through the agricultural fields surrounding the cemetery.

As a result 280 metres of established Pittosporum tobira hedge was burnt (approximately 560 plants) together with 35 established Acacias.Climbing plants (Bougainvillea) on the cemetery's pergola feature were also affected.

Our staff are currently assessing the best way to deal with the damage.

In a joint venture with the University of Oxford's World War Centenary Project, we have helped produce a set of resources to visualise the Commonwealth cemeteries, burial plots and memorials across the globe for those who lost their lives as a result of World War I.

This project, for the first time, enables people in some way to visualise our commemorative commitment - and more importantly the enormity of the human sacrifice made.

Click below to read a blog from our very own Head of External Communications, Peter Francis, to help you best explore the data.

Peter discusses how it is vital that we are able to visualise these statistics, so we can start to examine questions about the war and engage a new generation in the sacrifices made and the on-going importance of remembrance.

Writer and broadcaster Sue MacGregor has made an emotional journey to her uncle's island grave seven decades after his death as a  Prisoner of War (POW).

Best known as a former presenter of Woman's Hour, Sue visited Ambon War Cemetery in Indonesia after discovering that the Commission was responsible for maintaining the grave.

Iain MacGregor was one of more than 2,000 British POWs drafted into slave labour by the Japanese after Singapore fell in 1942. He died on the island of Haruku in 1943.

Sue said: “I only recently uncovered what really happened to Iain, after I learnt, too late to tell my mother, that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission had begun publishing a great deal of helpful information online.”

Click below to read Sue's full account.

Padre Dave Kettle has been appointed as Honorary Chaplain to the Commission. 

He will act as a point of contact for clergy and other religious leaders throughout the world who wish to know more about the Commission and its mission. 

Padre Kettle will be available to advise on appropriate commemorative ceremonies at the Commission's sites by groups or individuals who may be unfamiliar with commemorative protocol but who wish to conduct a ceremony. 

He will provide ceremonial advice and officiate where appropriate, and will make recommendations to religious leaders for input to annual commemorative events such as Remembrance Sunday and for special commemorative events held during the forthcoming WW1 Centenary.

A Service of Rededication is to be held at 11 am on Wednesday September 19th at Amersfoort (Oud Leusden) General Cemetery in the Netherlands, where 216 Commonwealth casualties of the Second World War are buried.

In May a year-long project to restore and renovate a war graves plot in the cemetery was completed ahead of schedule. Why not click to take a look at the album of before-and-after photographs?

The cemetery contains the graves of 216 Second World War airmen, from the RAF, the RAF Volunteer Reserve, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Many were killed when their aircraft were shot down on their way to or back from bombing raids over Germany.

Keep an eye on our website for further updates on the ceremony

Virtually every town and village in the UK lost men during the First World War. The Battle of the Somme which was fought between July and November 1916 was, for many communities, the battle which caused the greatest number of names to be added to local war memorials after the war.

The village of Ravensthorpe, near Dewsbury, in the industrial heart of the West Riding of Yorkshire was one such community that suffered many casualties in this period.

This month's feature focuses on the Battle of the Somme and highlights the stories of three Ravensthorpe men killed in action.

Thanks to the Western Front Association (WFA) for providing this article. The WFA is a registered charity dedicated to perpetuating the memory of those who served in the First World War.

For further information about the WFA and how to join their association please visit their website.

During the 1939-45 War Liberia became a staging point for aircraft arriving from Ascension Island en route from the United States to the Middle East, the landing grounds there having been constructed by American engineers.

As a result, twelve Commonwealth war dead from the Second World War are commemorated in the Republic of Liberia at two sites.

Cavalla Plantation Cemetery, Maryland County, contains the grave of one Royal Navy sailor.

Du Plantation Cemetery, Harbel, contains the graves of ten airmen (one Royal Air Force and nine South African Air Force) and one soldier (Royal Irish Fusiliers).

Du Plantation Cemetery (pictured) is situated within a rubber plantation owned by the Firestone Plantation Company.

Cavalla Plantation Cemetery is found within the Cavalla Plantation, owned by the Liberian Government.