Princess Anne opens new chapter for German Military Cemetery in Staffordshire

The Princess Royal has paid a visit to Staffordshire, where she officially opened the restored German Military Cemetery at Cannock Chase.

Princess Anne attended the inauguration ceremony on Thursday, 17 September, becoming the first official visitor to the cemetery’s new History Centre. 

The occasion forms part of a commemorative event organised by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, which has worked alongside the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on the restoration.

Set within the peaceful landscape, the cemetery is the central German war cemetery in Great Britain and is the final resting place of almost 5,000 people. 

The site contains 2,143 First World War burials and almost 2,800 from the Second World War, many of whom died while being held as prisoners of war or in internment camps.

It was opened to the public in 1967 following a 1959 agreement between the UK and West German governments. 

The Volksbund was then tasked with bringing together the remains of German war dead buried across Britain and Northern Ireland.