The formation and work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Phil Wilkinson’s talk will describe the virtually single-handed efforts of the man who oversaw the start of the work of the Commission in 1914. That work continues today, commemorating the sacrifice of the 1.7 million Commonwealth service personnel who died in both World Wars, and since.

The talk will be illustrated with images from all round the world, wherever a Commonwealth grave can be found – from Woodstock to Vladivostok.

Phil Wilkinson’s fairly conventional Royal Air Force career included squadron service at home and abroad, time behind desks in MOD, command of the Buccaneer Operational Conversion Unit in the early 80s. Then came fifteen years of unconventional assignments: on the directing staff of the USAF Air University in Alabama; Chief of the Arms Control Section at SHAPE; command of the RAF station in Berlin (as the Wall came down); and finally three and a half years as defence and air attaché in Moscow, retiring in 1996 as an air commodore. Wherever he served, he was seldom out of range of a Commonwealth War Graves site

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