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A uniform rounded-top headstone bearing a unit badge, name and optional emblem.
Also known as: War grave headstone, CWGC headstone, Military grave marker
The standard Commonwealth war grave marker. Almost uniquely among memorials it is designed to a published specification — same stone, same dimensions, same layout for every rank — and that deliberate uniformity is itself the statement.
The standard grave marker used by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: a rectangular stone with a curved top bearing the unit or national badge, the casualty's rank, name, unit, date of death and age, with an optional religious emblem and a personal inscription chosen by the family.
Contexts: History
Identical for every casualty regardless of rank or background, a principle of equality of treatment adopted deliberately by the Commission and applied consistently since the First World War.
From 1917 onward
The religious emblem is one of a defined set — a Latin cross, a Star of David, and others added over time — chosen by the family, with no emblem where none was requested or where the casualty's faith was unknown.
Because the specification is published and the records are searchable, a war grave headstone is among the most readable objects in any cemetery: nearly everything carved on it can be verified against a register.
An upright rectangular stone with a gently curved top, carrying a carved badge at the head, several lines of incised lettering below it, and often a small cross or other emblem beneath the text.
The poppy is the associated act of remembrance for the war dead the headstones commemorate.