18 February 2015 SERVICE VETERANS' GRAVES: the RSL

18 February 2015 SERVICE VETERANS’ GRAVES: THE RSL VIEW The RSL notes the issue raised in Wednesday’s edition of The Advertiser with respect to the graves of veterans. The RSL-SA President, Brigadier Tim Hanna, said today: "We need to acknowledge the contribution of all those who have served our country. While we understand that not all necessary information is available to the various cemetery authorities, including next-of-kin contact details, where there is clear evidence of military service this should be checked and the grave preserved.” Steve Larkins, Deputy State President RSL-SA reported that Veterans’ graves fall into a number of categories: Commonwealth War Graves. These graves of personnel who have died in service are protected by Commonwealth legislation. They are generally in designated sections of public cemeteries. They all have distinctive headstones made to a standard pattern. Service Cemeteries. The best examples of these are in the AIF Cemetery at West Terrace. There are over 4,000 graves of men and women who died subsequent to their service. They include four Victoria Cross Winners from WWI. Others include the Derrick Garden of Remembrance at Centennial Park, and the Kibby Garden of Remembrance at Enfield Memorial Park. Other sites exist in regional locations. Full details are on the RSL website. Graves of ex-service personnel bearing plaques (designating them as ex-service) are issued by the Services Cemeteries Trust, which is administered by the RSL. Private burials that may or may not have reference to an individual’s service. To determine whether an individual was a service member or not may involve a search of a range of records. Private Memorials / Family graves. These are typically in older cemeteries. They will often memorialise service personnel killed / buried overseas. West Terrace Cemetery on the CBD fringe, North Road Cemetery in Prospect and Dudley Park Cemetery in Port Adelaide-Enfield are replete with examples of these. The Carman family grave in Dudley Park is one of the most significant as it bears the commemorative plaques issued to the family for all three of the Carman brothers lost in WWI. The RSL has no specific knowledge of the status of these graves and memorials, other than that they embody a poignant record of service to our community and should be treated as items of profound significance. If there is concern about whether a grave is or should be protected, the first thing to do is establish whether or not the individual was a service person. Private burials are a matter for negotiation with the cemetery authority. The RSL-SA has an easy-to-use, and readily available, means to check service backgrounds. More importantly it allows members of the public to add information – just like a ‘Wiki’. The RSL Virtual War Memorial has been conceived and created in South Australia as RSL-SA’s contribution to the Centenary of ANZAC. It now has listings of all service personnel who embarked for overseas service in WWI, and to date all personnel killed in service from all conflicts. We soon expect to have a complete Commonwealth War Graves Commission listing linked to the site. The RSL would like to work with suburban and regional cemetery authorities to develop the Virtual War Memorial and optimise this site as both a resource and repository of our service and community across the state. For additional information please contact: Steve Larkins Deputy State President RSL-SA Contact: 0408 919 600 .

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