NZ war graves rank among world's best

New Zealand's war graves have been given the thumbs up by the head of the organisation looking after the final resting places of nearly two million Allied soldiers.

Richard Kellaway, director-general of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, has visited nearly 60 New Zealand cemeteries containing the graves of soldiers who died during World Wars I and II.

The commission maintains the graves of 1.7 million servicemen and women throughout the world, builds memorials to thousands of unknown soldiers and maintains a huge computer database with the name, rank and serial number of each casualty and brief details of his or her death.

The founding principles of the commission were that each casualty should be commemorated individually with his or her name on a permanent headstone or memorial, with no distinction between military or civilian rank, race or creed.

Mr Kellaway said New Zealand war graves were in excellent order, "as well-maintained as any I have seen".

"I am very pleased with the standard."

He said that like other countries, there was a growing interest in New Zealand in the history of the people lying in war graves.

"Most families in New Zealand, and certainly in the UK, were touched by the First or Second World Wars."

Mr Kellaway said an increasing number of school students studying history were using the commission's website to find out where and when relatives had died in either war.

Soldiers' remains were being discovered every year, particularly in France and Belgium, he said.

Many were never identified and were buried in the nearest Commonwealth War Graves cemetery with a military funeral and an unknown soldier headstone.

New Zealand contributes about $2 million of the commission's annual budget of $95.83 million.