As many of our regular readers will be aware, we have now worked our way through the A-Z of countries.  In the feedback we received, we have been asked to continue a second time through the alphabet.

This month we therefore feature Belize.  The Commission's work in Belize is overseen by the Director of the Commission's Canadian Agency office based in Ottawa, Canada.

On 25 September a service to commemorate the life and gallantry of Captain JRO Thompson RAMC took place at Brookwood Military Cemetery, United Kingdom.

Posthumously awarded the George Cross in February 1945 by HM King George VI, to date Captain Thompson remains the only recipient from the Royal Army Medical Corps.

The First World War was a truly global conflict. Although the vast majority of the fighting took place in France and Belgium, there were numerous sideshows in other parts of the world. In November 1914, one of the more obscure of these battles took place in China.

With many thanks to the Western Front Association for producing this article.

We are regularly asked to feature more information on our work and the gardening staff who maintain our cemeteries.

This article features a new training programme underway in Italy, benefitting all the gardeners based there.  The training has given them an opportunity to develop their skills, swap ideas  and visit cemeteries outside their normal area.

Mr Grahame Dryden recently visited Rangoon War Cemetery, Myanmar, where he was delighted to meet with the Commission's Cemetery Manager, Robert Htun New.

Grahame sent us several photographs of the cemetery and commented "Robert was extremely helpful and went to great lengths to ensure that we had access to the registers and he lead us to the graves of the two George Cross casualties buried in the cemetery."

The Commission has been supporting a new exhibition by the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust. ‘Children and War’ opened in The Oxfordshire Museum in October, curated by Julie Summers whose book Remembered charted the history of the Commission.

The exhibition, ‘Children and War’ opened on 16th October 2011 and will run for 18 months at The Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock looking at ‘Children and War’ through the lens of the county.          

In the run up to next year’s Olympic Games in London a large delegation of Belgian, British, French and German Olympic medal winners will be welcomed in Ypres on 11 November.

Chairman of the International Olympic committee, Dr. Jacques Rogge, will lead the delegation  who will participate in the Remembrance Day Ceremony at the Menin Gate at 11.00 am.  Princes Mathilde of Belgium will also be in attendance.

A report on the event will be included in next month's newsletter.

For further information about the Menin Gate please Read More

In a joint appeal between the Commission and The Glasnevin Trust, which is responsible for Ireland’s largest cemetery, in Dublin, relatives of servicemen and women who are buried in the cemetery are being asked to come forward for Remembrance Day.

On Armistice Day two years ago, Glasnevin Trust and the Commission began a special project of identifying and marking the previously un-marked war graves in the cemetery. To date, 85 graves have been found and new headstones erected. Two years on and the two organisations are appealing for relatives of the 208 casualties buried at the cemetery to contact them.