Originally Posted by
bugged on the right
There were five or six rows, and he asked me if I noticed anything unusual. They were all dated 1919.
All of these soldiers and nurses had survived the Great War and were enjoying being billeted in a beautiful English village before being repatriated when they were all killed by the Spanish Flu.
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Hi BOTR - it should be remembered that, whilst the Armistice is always acknowledged as 11 Nov 1918, the Treaty of Versailles was not signed until 28 Jun 1919; thus formally ending the war; and that the Imperial War Graves Commission laid the majority of WW1 headstones between 1920 and 1927, such was the size of the task. A good number of headstones reflected those who died from the Spanish Flu epidemic whilst serving right at the end of the war effort, as well as after the cease of hostilities, and many more were laid for those who died from wounds some years after the war had ended. As an example; in my local churchyard, of 3 CWGC headstones, there's one from 1916, one from a death in Nov 1919 and one from Dec 1920. The Nov 1919 stone states "...died from the effects of gas poisoning in Belgium." - clearly some (horrible) time from the cause to the final effect.
Another thing you may notice with NZ headstones is the lack of any personal inscription. British families were allowed up to 66 letters to pay their own personal tribute on the headstone below the official inscription; for this 'privilege' (!) they were charged thrupence ha'penny per letter. The governments of the dominions disagreed, on the basis that charging for a personal inscription defied Fabian Ware's intent that all were equal in death. Therefore, the Australian and Canadian governments funded the cost of a personal inscription from official coffers, as desired by the Next of Kin; the New Zealand government went further in the name of equality, and banned personal inscriptions on headstones for New Zealand personnel altogether. Hence, almost no NZ CWGC headstones from WW1 have a personal inscription. Whilst I understand the principle of the stance, I do find that the personal inscription on a headstone is sometimes most moving; it's sad (to my mind) that NZ headstones lack that connection.