The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has apologized after an investigation found that at least 161,000 mostly Africans and Indians who died fighting for the British Empire during World War I weren’t properly honored due to “pervasive racism.”
The investigation found that at least 116,000 people — and possibly as many as 350,000 — were either not commemorated by name or weren’t commemorated at all, according to findings released Thursday. In addition, between 45,000 and 54,000 casualties were “commemorated unequally.”
“We apologize unreservedly for the historical wrongs found in this report and for failing to live up to founding principle, of `equality of treatment in death,’” the commission said after the findings were released.
The commission appointed a committee to investigate claims of unequal treatment of war dead following a 2019 TV documentary presented by David Lammy a member of Parliament from the opposition Labour Party The commission oversees the graves of more than 1.7 million service personnel from the former British Empire who died during the two world wars.
