Commonwealth War Graves Commission
In 2024 we worked with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) to design a new programme to honour non-commemorated labourers in South Africa through poetry, with a collaborative poem and epitaph written by South African poet Koleka Putuma and our former Chair Daljit Nagra. This work is part of the RSL’s commitment to thinking of UK literature in its global context.
The CWGC is the global organisation responsible for commemorating more than 1.7 million casualties of the First and Second World Wars. The RSL’s partnership with them was designed as part of the CWGC’s work to address past inequalities. It is now known that the then Imperial War Graves Commission, alongside colonial administrations, failed to honour at least 100,000 African and Indian service personnel with the same recognition given to Europeans.
In 2024, a new memorial to honour South African Military Labourers was erected within the historic Delville Wood Memorial Garden in Cape Town. The Cape Town Labour Corps Memorial stands as a testament to those whose legacies had been overlooked – as the World Wars fade from living memory, this partnership ensures the contribution all South African servicemen will continue to be honoured, highlighting their integral contribution to global history. The title of the co-authored poem – ‘your legacies are preserved here’ – was engraved in Afrikaans and IsiXhosa onto the stone plinth that forms the centrepiece of the Memorial. Koleka performed the poem as the site was opened by Princess Anne in January.
