JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Vol. XLV. 1919. 

 Part I. 



OUR SOLDIERS' GRAVES. 



By Capt. A. W. Hill, Sc.D., M.A., F.L.S. 

 ^Botanical Adviser to the Imperial War Graves Commission.) 



[Read February 25, 191 9 ; Mr. A. W. Sutton, V.M.H., in the Chair.] 



Even throughout life, 'tis death that makes life live, 

 Give it whatever the significance. 



The Graves Registration Commission has had many spheres of activity 

 besides the special department with which I am more directly 

 connected. 



Its chief concerns have been the finding, marking, and registration 

 of the graves of officers and men who die on active service. 

 J The details of the gradual growth and building up of the Graves 

 Registration Commission have been so well given by Lt.-Coi. G. H. 

 Stobart in the Quarterly Journal of the United Services Institution 

 for May 1917, that it is unnecessary to deal at length with the matter 

 here. It must never be forgotten, however, that our nation owes to 

 the unexampled generosity of the French the possession in perpetuity 

 of the plots of ground where British cemeteries have been established. 

 The French passed a law at the close of 1915, by which, having assumed 

 the necessary powers, they undertook to purchase all such plots and 

 present the " right of enjoyment " of them as a free gift in perpetuity 

 to the British Nation, the British Government on its part making 

 itself responsible for their maintenance. To quote from the paper 

 to which I have referred : " The fact of this magnificent gift, the 

 degree of generosity which prompted it, and the spirit in which every 



VOL. XLV. B 



