‘We Will Remember Them’: Battlefield Remembrance and the Cult of the Fallen since 1914

Atherton, Ian

Abstract

The First World War is argued here to be evolutionary not revolutionary in terms of conflict memory, and is viewed through the lens of the creation and practices of the Imperial (later commonwealth) War Graves Commission. Its principles, developing but also solidifying existing practices, set the norm for the following century, though they have been adapted in later conflicts including the Falklands War (1982), as well as by the recent recognition of their racial biases. Laqueur’s argument about the naming of the dead as an abiding concern of modern memory is developed, arguing for a hyper-necronominalism as well as a memory maths, necro-accounting or thanatarithmetic, the precise numbering of the dead. Finally, the chapter uses the hunt for the ‘true’ location of Bosworth to explore concerns with place, battlefield preservation, heritage, and planning, seen through the creation of registers of historic battlefields in England, Scotland, and Wales.

Citation

Atherton, I. (2024). ‘We Will Remember Them’: Battlefield Remembrance and the Cult of the Fallen since 1914. In Britons and their Battlefields: War, Memory and Commemoration since the Fourteenth Century (242-305). Oxford University Press (OUP). https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198912880.003.0008

• Online Publication Date: Aug 19, 2024
• Publication Date: Aug 19, 2024
• Deposit Date: Sep 6, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Pages: 242-305
• Book Title: Britons and their Battlefields: War, Memory and Commemoration since the Fourteenth Century
• Chapter Number: 8
• ISBN: 9780198912859
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198912880.003.0008
• Keywords: hyper-necronominalism, War Graves Commission, Falklands, Fromelles, Bosworth, battlefield burial, war cemetery, visiting battlefields, fallen soldiers, conflict archaeology
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/889987
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/book/58081/chapter-abstract/478611949?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=true#no-access-message