CWGC Digital Basra Memorial - Useful Hint No 1

Steve Johnson
Jun 3
3 min read

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Digital version of the Basra Memorial provides the most up-to-date listing of the names of the 40500+ Commonwealth forces members who died during the Mesopotamian Campaign, from the Autumn of 1914 to the end of August 1921, and whose graves are not known. The real Memorial at Basra (comprising 69 panels), holds the names of only 7,385 of these men, this figure made up of all British deaths plus the Indian Officers. The deaths of Indian NCOs and Indian 'Other Ranks', representing in excess of 33,000 of the total number, are only listed on tghe panels as numbers under each of the Military Units. With better research carried out by the CWGC since the physical memorial was constructed, many of the names on the original panels have disappeared (e.g. actual burial location of the fallen since determined), though many have been added. I became aware of the large number of differences as part of my ongoing research on the Basra Memorial and also from queries received via my website and I have asked the CWGC (May 2026) to verify the extent of the differences and the various reasons behind the deletions & additions.

The CWGC Digital Basra Memorial is a very useful tool for anyone researching individual names of the fallen, especially when used in conjunction with the names on the 69 panels at Basra which can be viewed HERE. However, for anyone researching by Regiment name there is a degree of difficulty in viewing all the associated names as almost 50 Regiments appear in two distinct locations on the digital memorial. The reason for this is that servicemen (British as well as Indian) who died in captivity in Turkey (Türkiye) with unknown graves are listed in a separate group in Regiment sequence towards the end of the digital Basra Memorial database. Currently the CWGC Search function can only pick up the first occurrence of a Regiment name and the men attached to it and there is no way of reconciling the total number of fallen for that Regiment (displayed on the Search screen) against the actual number of names, since it is not possible to search for the remaining men of that Regiment who died in Türkiye.

HINT: If the total number for the Regiment being researched does not match the number of actual names displayed, it means that some men of the Regiment died in Türkiye. The only way to locate the missing names is to use the 'slider' at the bottom of the screen and move forward to digital panel numbers 270 thru 277. You can then scroll through these panels one by one until you find the Regiment name you are researching. The good news is that each Regiment will only appear in a maximum of two locations, whereas at the real Basra Memorial a Regiment can appear on up to four different panels.

As always, if you have any problems, send me a message via my CONTACT page.

I have attached to this post several screen shots of the Digital Basra Memorial for a Regiment that lost men in Türkiye - in this case The Dorsetshire Regiment. You will see that the numbers do add up correctly.