British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

In honour of the recent anniversary of the D-Day Landings in Normandy, this weeks post looks at some of those who died in its preparation - giving their lives for their country. Royal Marine Commandos attached to 3rd Division move inland from Sword Beach on the Normandy coast, 6 June 1944.  Royal Marine Commandos attached to 3rd Division for the assault on Sword Beach move inland, 6 June 1944. A Churchill bridgelayer can be seen in the background. (IWM Non-commercial Licence) Last week, surviving veterans and the families of those who have died travelled to France for the annual D-Day commemorations . It is now 72 years since that fateful day, 6th June 1944 , when Allied forces invaded Normandy in Operation Overlord - the allied invasion of north-west Europe. The assault phase of the operation, Operation Neptune , was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The successful attack on German-occupied western Europe would lead, eventually, to Allied victory in May 1945. 1...

Following on from last week's post on women serving in war, this week we have a competition to win a copy of My Ancestor was a Woman at War by Emma Jolly Women's war service has been thrust into the media spotlight recently with BBC 1's Sunday night drama series, The Crimson Field . Described by the BBC as one of "the Great War’s untold stories", the drama is centred around a tented field hospital on the coast of France, where a team of doctors, nurses and women volunteers work together to heal the bodies and souls of men wounded in the trenches.One of the issues raised by the story is the harsh reality of war. As with their male counterparts, women working close to the frontline could not be prepared for the sheer number of sick and injured men that would emerge from battle. My Ancestor was a Woman at War (Society of Genealogists, 2013) looks at how to research military nurses of the Victorian era and both world wars, while outlining resource...

This Sunday marks the 94 th anniversary of the end of the Great War. In honour of the Armistice, this week’s post pays tribute to the many servicemen and women, and civilian war dead, whose burial records can be found in the Deceased Online database . Over 1,700,000 men and women of Commonwealth forces died in the two world wars. Thousands more were killed in the numerous battles and wars that have taken place across the world over past centuries. Deceased Online’s database includes not only official Commonwealth burial grounds like those in Shooter’s Hill, Greenwich, and Chester (Blacon), but records of individuals whose service is long forgotten and whose graves now lie neglected. There are collections of Allied forces from outside the Commonwealth, such as the Norwegian section in Greenwich and that of 86 Polish airmen whose graves lie in Chester, far from home. Register of Canadian Air Force burials at Blacon, Chester (from the database)  There are also bur...