WINSFORD’S MP visited war graves in Winsford in support of a ‘virtual cemetery’ project that aims to map over 300,000 Commonwealth Great War casualties.

Stephen O’Brien was at Over St John’s Cemetery on Friday, July 4 and called on locals and schoolchildren to pay their respects during the centenary of Britain’s entry into the conflict.

“The Centenary of the outbreak of the First World War is a time, not just for reflection and commemoration, but also an opportunity to educate a new generation of young people about the extraordinary events of a hundred years ago and to bring to life some of the personal stories from this remarkable time,” said Mr O’Brien.

“Encouraging young people to visit the graves of the fallen is a simple but profoundly important way to commemorate the outbreak of the war. My own great grand-father was killed in 1917 at Poelcapelle at Ypres and his widow spent her last years with our family during my teens.

“My children don’t have that connection so it is important to give children now the opportunities to remember and respect previous generations.”

Mr O’Brien’s calls follow a nationwide initiative spearheaded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s CWGC’s In From the Cold Project, which aims to track down all service men and women missing from the official list of First and Second World War casualties.

As part of the project, the cwgc-virtual-cemetery.org resource has been set up online to allow pupils and teachers to learn more about CWGC’s work across the globe.

The website allows users to search by name or cemetery to find war casualties buried in Cheshire and across the rest of the world.

As part of the centenary commemorations, more than a hundred visitor information panels will be installed at cemeteries across the UK.

The panels will incorporate QR codes which, when scanned with smartphones, will enable visitors to read personal stories related to soldiers buried there.