The REME Museum is marking the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's (CWGC) War Graves Week (21 - 28 May) with a new project to collect images of all REME soldier’s graves worldwide and is asking the public, former members of the Corps and their families to help.

We already have some images in our collection, but we want to gather images of all REME graves where soldiers have died in service since 1942. The images will eventually be added to our ‘died in service’ database which can be viewed in our Remembrance Gallery.

REME Corps Historian, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Steve Colling came up with the idea during his recent Bike to Berlin; he also manages the database which is used in the Museum to record the service of all those who died in service. Steve said:

Just about everyone carries a mobile phone with a camera. So we’re asking people to photograph the gravestones of REME soldiers, to email them to the Museum and to allow the Museum to store and use the images. It’s a project that might take a few years!

Two CWGC headstones of REME personnel and a Cross of Sacrifice photographed by Steve during his Bike to Berlin.

If you have a digital photo already, or come across a REME grave and would be happy to take one, please send us your image(s) together with a date and location (including the name of the cemetery if possible) to: [email protected]. Please include in your email the following statement: "This is my image and I give the REME Museum all rights to its use."

The CWGC War Graves Week lasts just a few days but your image could be archived in perpetuity.

Published 21.05.2022

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Project Update

We have made a start and have collected about a hundred good images of REME headstones. Very many thanks to those of you who have already sent us your pictures, including several volunteers with the CWGC, who have been quick to support our project.

Examples of photographs we have already received, including one of an unknown REME soldier of the Second World War.

Many of the images that have been submitted are of post war graves. Of the approximately 4,200 names on our died in service database, about half died in the Second World War and are listed on the CWGC website, with the remainder having died in service since the end of the war.

So our project still has some way to go. Hopefully, as word gets around and with travel overseas resuming, our collection of images will quickly grow. So if you see a REME gravestone on your travels and have a digital camera or phone with you please take a photograph and send it to us. 

All submissions will be acknowledged by the Corps Historian within a few days of receipt.

Updated 07.06.2022