It would have been nice to view a picture of a particular grave
Hi Chug! It is still possible to get pictures of many thousands of headstones around the world through the
War Graves Photographic Project , a non-profit voluntary scheme which worked with the CWGC and its website until a few years ago, with CWGC records linked to the WGPP free to access database and photo prints available at nominal cost -- just about enough to cover printing and postage.
As I understand it the CWGC then demanded to take over the Project's archives and run the WGPP as a commercial enterprise. WGPP voluntary management considered this inappropriate as their thousands of images had been provided and organised free of charge by an army of volunteers who had given their services on that basis. CWGC then ended the co-operation which had enabled many relatives to obtain headstone images from around the world.
Much as I admire the work of the CWGC I thought at the time and still think they were wrong to turn the WGPP into a commercial venture and like most volunteers I agreed with WGPP's decision to refuse such an approach. My wife and I spent an enjoyable year researching and clearing graveyards (using chainsaw at one stage) and producing more than 500 images for the Project; the thanks of the relatives was all the reward we could have wanted.
We are both glad to see that the Project continues to thrive although it receives no public money as far as I know and the cost of the servers etc is met by its volunteer managers.