Scandal of unequal commemoration of UK’s WW1 dead known about ‘for years’

Commonwealth War Graves Commission apologises after report shows thousands of black and Asian troops not commemorated

The failure to properly commemorate hundreds of thousands of black and Asian troops who died fighting for the British empire has been known about for years, the head of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) has acknowledged.

Claire Horton, the director general of the CWGC, acknowledged that research revealing black and Asian soldiers had not been equally commemorated had been in the public domain for years. The commission had only taken steps to address the imbalance following a 2019 documentary featuring Labour MP David Lammy.