Officers and sailors of HMS Illustrious carried out maintenance work, and laid a wreath at the graves of their fallen comrades, at Malta (Capuccini) Naval Cemetery.

HMS Illustrious sailed into the Grand Harbour in Malta during a three month training deployment to the Mediterranean. The crew contacted the CWGC to offer assistance at the Naval Cemetery in Malta -- an offer which was gratefully accepted by the commission's local supervisor.

The work of serving members of the Royal Navy -- tending the graves of those who have gone before them -- is of practical and symbolic importance for both the Royal Navy and the CWGC.

Click below to see a photo album of the work.

Servicemen and women from 5 Medical Regiment rolled up their sleeves to clean a number of headstones and the Cross of Sacrifice in Catterick Garrison Cemetery.

Catterick Garrison Cemetery lies close to Gaza Barracks, the home of 5 Medical Regiment. The Cemetery contains 42 Commonwealth war graves as well as a number of post-war burials, including some of the most recent casualties from current conflicts.

Many of the headstones had suffered significant mud staining as a result of the wet North Yorkshire summer.

Using only water and soft scrubbing brushes, the group cleaned and restored the headstones and the Cross of Sacrifice to their best possible condition.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is committing major internal resources to a coordinated 14 - 18 centenary programme. The programme will help to stage commemorative events at the cemeteries and memorials of the First World War; it will enhance the understanding and experience for the visitors to the cemeteries and memorials; and it will leave a lasting cultural legacy.

Ensuring our locations are ready for the centenary is perhaps the biggest single operational challenge we have faced since the end of the Second World War.

It is a challenge that has brought all the Commission’s staff, departments and disciplines together to deliver a solution that will not only honour those who died, but also engage a new generation in the importance of remembrance.

14 – 18 Project Manager, Andy Stillman, talks about some of the large-scale projects already under way ahead of the centenary period.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has installed the first of up to a hundred information panels in the UK, at Oxford (Botley) Cemetery.

Altogether 500 such panels are being installed at cemeteries and memorials over the coming months and years to mark the centenary of the First World War.

The panels were successfully piloted at ten sites which make up the Forgotten Front Remembrance Trail in Northern France and the 14 – 18 Team is now entering the full production phase.

The panels will include general information about the CWGC, the historical and geographical context of the cemetery or memorial and the personal stories of some of those commemorated there.

The objective is to produce panels for 100 locations across France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Turkey by the end of May 2013.

The CWGC has placed a roll of honour on public display at its Head Office in Maidenhead, Berkshire, to commemorate Nigerian servicemen who fell during the two world wars.

The Roll of Honour, taking the form of a memorial book, commemorates all the casualties previously commemorated on the Nigeria and Lagos Memorials. These formed part of the Nigerian National Memorial in Lagos, which was dismantled some years ago. There are now plans to build a new memorial.

The Nigerian National Memorial commemorated 944 First World War casualties and 1158 African soldiers from Nigeria who died during the Second World War and whose graves could not be maintained or located.

The Commission has opened a new site at Ieper in Belgium, where 49 members of staff, who make up horticultural and maintenance mobile teams, will be based.

The site was opened by the Governor of West Flanders, Mr Carl Decaluwé, and CWGC Commissioner, Sir Joe French.

Sir Joe French explained that getting the mobile teams together on one site would lead to greater efficiency and that the project had been brought in on budget and on time

Click on the 'Read more' tab below to watch a short video of  the Director of CWGC's Northern Europe Area, Ian Hussein, telling us more about the project.

There are many examples of incidents and accidents throughout the Great War that resulted in injury, loss of life or damage to property.

This feature focuses on the collision between SS Mont-Blanc and SS lmo in Halifax Harbour, 6 December 1917 -- resulting in the world's largest pre-atomic explosion.1,500 people killed instantly and a further 9,000 injured.

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 please visit their website.

Peru is located in Western South America, bordering the South Pacific Ocean, between Chile and Ecuador.

Six British war dead from the two world wars are buried in Bellavista Old British Cemetery, Callao, in the Republic of Peru.

Four of the burials  are casualties of the First World War and two are casualties of the Second World War.

There are also a number of non-world war naval graves in the cemetery for which the Commission is not responsible.

The casualties, five from the Royal Navy and one Royal Marine, died of illness or as a result of accidents.