Memorial; Grave marker

This First World War wooden cross was used as a temporary grave marker like many used on the battlefields in France and Belgium. The cross is simple in design, made from two interlocked pieces of wood. There are 4 separate pressed metal strips which label the details of the deceased soldier, in this case: '11533 PTE. F. A. BEER [of the] 16TH KINGS LIVERPOOL REGT. ATTD. 13TH [who died on the] 24TH JULY 1916', and the grave location 'G.R.U. 3'. There is also an attached red ribbon wrapped around the cross arms for suspension. During the war, soldiers were typically buried where they fell or close by. The sheer volume of casualties, and the fact that units were still often under fire, meant this was often done hastily. Graves were marked for later identification, sometimes by sticks or rifles pushed into the ground, or by wooden crosses. Such was the scale of the killing that crosses were mass-produced and shipped to the front. Later, specialist teams under the authority of the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) identified, exhumed and moved the bodies for reburial in larger cemeteries, marked with the now-familiar uniform Portland stone gravestones. Relatives often only had a photo or medal to remember their loved ones. The now-redundant wooden markers were offered to the dead men's families, with each responsible for either collecting them or shipping them home. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records, at least 10,000 were returned to next of kin. Some were given to churches, memorial halls or other organisations, but most of the unclaimed markers were destroyed. Often, they were burnt and the ashes scattered across the burial grounds. Almost one million soldiers from the British Empire were killed during the First World War. By the time Germany signed the Armistice in 1918, almost 17,000 men from the King’s Regiment had been killed.