In November each year our thoughts naturally turn towards the fallen of the two world wars and conflicts that have occurred since. Less obvious but equally important, we also remember those who died not in conflict but during their service of the Crown.

The REME Museum and Archives maintain the REME Died in Service Database which theoretically lists all those who have died whilst serving in the Corps. The database contains 4242 entries of which about half are listed on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website. The remainder died in the so called small wars or through accident or illness.

Craftsman Hunt’s data sheet and gravestone, Ranville, France. He died on D-Day, 6 June 1944. An additional field on the data sheet will include the name of the photographer.

In May, the Museum initiated a project to gather images of gravestones of the REME soldiers who died in service. We have received a couple of hundred images, mostly from the UK but also from the France and Germany, the Oman, Malaysia and Singapore. Images have been submitted by serving and ex REME personnel, their relatives and friends and the CWGC.

We need your help to gather the images and ask that perhaps, as part of your Remembrance, you capture images of REME gravestones whenever you can. Most mobile phones deliver images of a usable quality and we just need the location of the gravestone and a short statement to the effect that 'it’s your image and you give the REME Museum and Archives permission to store and use the image' to overcome any future copyright issues.

Please send images to Corps Historian, Steve Colling, at [email protected]

All will be acknowledged.