The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, as we know it today, was largely inspired by Major (Later Major General Sir) Fabian Ware, who, whilst working with the British Red Cross in France in 1914, noticed the lack of any official organisation responsible for the marking and recording of the graves of soldiers killed in action. Or who had died of wounds.

Fabian Ware realised that this deficiency was likely to cause a considerable loss of morale amongst troops in the field, and greater still, would become a source of disappointment to the families of dead soldiers, who had a right to expect that whenever fortunes of war made it possible, their loved ones had the dignity of a known and marked burial place.

Fabian Ware’s concerns, supported by demands from relatives at home, was recognised by the war office and in 1915 his work led to the creation of the Graves Registration Commission, which under his command, transferred from the Red Cross to the army. Central to the war effort was Commonwealth co-operation, and the Graves Commission acknowledged this. At the Imperial Conference held in 1917, the Imperial (later commonwealth) war Graves Commission was established.

It was under Ware's leadership that the fundamental principles of the Commission were established. Emphasis was on the individual, with every person who had lost their life being remembered by name on a headstone memorial. There was to be no distinction by way of rank, race, or creed.

Under Fabian Ware's leadership, the Commission began organising itself for the role it was to play in constructing and maintaining cemeteries and memorials, and in compiling and publishing records of those killed. By the end of World War 2, the commission’s duties covered the commemoration of 1.5 million war dead of the Commonwealth, with cemeteries and memorials in 140 countries.