This thesis examines the policies and procedures created during and after the First World War that provided the foundation for how the United States commemorated its war dead for the next century. Many of the techniques used in modern times date back to the Great War. However, one hundred years earlier, America possessed very few methods or even ideas about how to locate, identify, repatriate, and honor its military personnel that died during foreign conflicts. These ideas were not conceived in the halls of government buildings. On the contrary, concerned citizens originated many of the concepts later codified by the American government. This paper draws extensively upon archival documents, newspapers, and published primary sources to trace the history of America’s burial and repatriation policies, the Army Graves Registration Services, and how American dead came to permanently rest in military cemeteries on the continent of Europe. The unprecedented dilemma of over 80,000 American soldiers buried in France and surrounding countries at the conclusion of the First World War in 1918 propelled the United States to solve many social, political, and military problems that arose over the final disposition of those remains. The solutions to those problems became the foundation for how America would repatriate, honor, and mourn its military dead for the next century. Some of these battles persist even today as the nation tries to grapple with the proper way to commemorate the nation’s participation in the First World War on the eve of the conflict’s centennial.

The Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission (IWGC), founded during the 1917 Imperial War Conference, was the institution responsible for the British Empire’s war dead from the First World War. This thesis reveals Canada’s limited influence in establishing the IWGC and also during its early deliberations. This is in sharp contrast to standard historical views of Canada’s apparent national affirmation at home and abroad during the war. This thesis argues that despite Canada’s initiatives for increased autonomy over military and political matters during the First World War, this desire for independence of action was absent when exploring the case study of the IWGC. Each Dominion had a delegate in the IWGC’s governing body and the cost of the care and maintenance of the Empire’s war graves was shared between Britain and the Dominions, proportionally to their number of war dead. Canada’s share was the largest amongst the Dominions. However, the innovative imperial structure reflected in the IWGC’s organization did not translate into any equality in decision-making regarding IWGC policies. British representatives preferred a unified imperial approach, suppressing Dominion voices, and Canada’s representative rarely objected. Given the importance of the subject of military burials for bereaved families, the Canadian government’s general lack of advocacy on their behalf demonstrates Canada’s imperial mindset, which in this case overshadowed burgeoning national assertion.