remembrance · argentine graves

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use the down arrow to view option ========================= ---------- section a ---------- argentine graves [Rem] asquith, lieutenant raymond [BWM] ========================= ---------- section b ---------- baltic exchange [BWM] battle britain memorial flight [BWM] bayes, gilbert [BWM] bean, charles [BWM] blighty, a soldier's dream of [BWM] british medical association [BWM] ========================= ---------- section c ---------- canada and liverpool [BWM] cenotaph, new zealand [BWM] chopsticks memorial [BWM] cochrane, admiral lord thomas [Rem] collingwood, vice admiral lord [BWM] ========================= ---------- section f ---------- fishguard [BWM] ========================= ---------- section g ---------- glasgow university memorial chapel [BWM] grenfell, captain the honourable julian [Rem] ========================= ---------- section h ---------- halifax bomber lw 340 [Rem] havelock, major general sir henry [BWM] helles memorial [BWM] home guard memorial (torbay) [BWM] hollis vc, stanley [BWM] horner, lieutenant edward [BWM] ========================= ---------- section k ---------- king’s own royal regiment memorial chapel [BWM] king's royal rifle corps [BWM] ========================= ---------- section l ---------- lincoln cathedral [BWM] ========================= ---------- section m ---------- malta [BWM] madingly [Rem] montford, paul [BWM] mckenzie, dr r tait [BWM] midleton, lord [BWM] music of remembrance [Rem] ========================= ---------- section n ---------- nelson's island [Rem] newgass, lieutenant harold [BWM] ========================= ---------- section p ---------- polish war memorial [BWM] ========================= ---------- section r ---------- rugby school memorial chapel [BWM] ========================= ---------- section s ---------- sandhurst, royal memorial chapel [BWM] sicily [Rem] st brides church [BWM] stirling bomber n 3654 [Rem] strange burial, a [Rem] ========================= ---------- section t ---------- turing, alan [BWM] ========================= ---------- section w ---------- wakeful, HMS [Rem] wakenshaw vc, private adam [BWM] williams, lieutenant colonel henry [Rem] women at war memorial [BWM]

In May 1982 the Argentinian armed forces invaded the Falkland Islands. A British Taskforce was despatched to the South Atlantic to remove them. After a hard-fought campaign and amidst chaotic scenes, British forces entered the Falkland Islands' capital Port Stanley on 14 June, signalling the end of the conflict.

“Single items of correspondence on bodies were not considered conclusive evidence for identification purposes, but collections of personal correspondence were”

The Argentines were then disarmed and repatriated to Argentina aboard SS NORLAND and SS CANBERRA. The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was adopted on 12 August 1949 by the Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of International Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War, held in Geneva from 21 April to 12 August 1949 and the Convention came into force on 21 October 1950.

Article 122 states: 'Upon the outbreak of a conflict and in all cases of occupation, each of the Parties to the conflict shall institute an official Information Bureau for prisoners of war who are in its power.' The British quickly established the United Kingdom Prisoner of War Information Bureau and as part of its responsibilities commenced compiling an 'Argentine War Graves Register' and undertook the interment of the Argentines who had been killed. The task was complicated by the poor personnel records kept by the Argentinian military.

Few of the graves carry names, as many of the soldiers were young conscripts without name-tags, with cardboard name-tags, or with name-tags that were blank.

In December 1982 the British Government commissioned a firm of civilian undertakers to carry out concentration and recovery of all Argentine graves on the Falklands. All personnel carrying out the task had to be over the age of 30 and physically fit. Assisted by the military, they identified every isolated and mass Argentine grave on the Falklands and brought them into Port Darwin. The coffins for the task were shipped from UK. Single items of correspondence on bodies were not considered conclusive evidence for identification purposes, but collections of personal correspondence were.

Every effort was made to correctly identify each body and all recovered Argentine remains were given a decent Christian burial with full military honours in the cemetery at Port Darwin on East Falkland in much the same manner as had they been British. Every effort was made to identify the bodies. Throughout the whole operation, the provisions of the Geneva Conventions were rigorously followed, with great care being taken to tend to the bodies of the Argentines, as if they had been British Servicemen.

Each of the 231 graves in the Argentinian Military Cemetery at Darwin is marked by a white wooden cross with the name of the soldier on it, where known. Conscious of the sensitivities of the Falkland Islanders, wooden crosses were employed, rather than headstones, as this would have implied permanence.

Many of the rosary bead-draped crosses state simply: "An Argentine Soldier Known Unto God". The graves are maintained by the British Forces Falkland Islands on behalf of MOD. Since the end of the conflict, several visits have been organised to allow the families of Argentinian soldiers killed to visit their graves. The Falkland Island Government, thinking it would be judicious to send the bodies back to Argentina, offered funds for repatriation and interestingly the Argentinian Government declined the offer, stating that there was no need for repatriation, as the bodies were already buried on Argentine soil.

This stance was somewhat undermined by the fact that the bodies of Argentines killed in the initial assault in May 1982 were repatriated to Argentina. In April 1994, the remains of two aircrew of an Argentine Lear Jet were discovered on Pebble Island off West Falkland. Three bodies from the wreck had originally been recovered and interred at Darwin in 1982. Given the distance of time since the conflict, Argentine authorities could offer only limited assistance in identification.

A military funeral was conducted by the British forces on 16 April 1994 and was video recorded by British authorities and forwarded to HBMA Buenos Aires. The British built an enclosed burial plot with a cairn surmounted by a cross and buried both bodies either side of it.