The Armed Forces Memorial and The Roll of Honour: A Guide for Bereaved Families
This guidance is for the bereaved families of service personnel and veterans and provides information about the Armed Forces Memorial and the Roll of Honour.
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The Armed Forces Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire contains the names of members of the UK Armed Forces, Regular and Reserve, who have died on duty since 1948.
The Memorial was dedicated in 2007 and included almost 16,000 names. Each year, the Armed Forces Memorial Naming Panel, chaired by the Defence Services Secretary, supported by senior members of each Service and a senior medical adviser, considers the names of serving service personnel who have died during the preceding year in order to determine those who meet the necessary criteria to be included on the Memorial. A service for families is held at the National Memorial Arboretum, usually in July, to commemorate those personnel.
The Roll of Honour is a searchable, electronic record, which contains the names of all UK Armed Forces personnel who have died during their service, since 1948, regardless of the cause of death.
In addition to those named on the walls of the Armed Forces Memorial, an Obelisk at the centre of the Memorial commemorates all who have died in service and bears the inscription “They Died Serving Their Country – We Will Remember Them”.
This guide describes the process by which the names of serving Armed Forces personnel who have died may be considered for inclusion on the Armed Forces Memorial and the Roll of Honour. In defining the general criteria that are applied it also describes other specific circumstances that may be relevant, and also the process by which families can apply to the Ministry of Defence for consideration to be given for names to be included where the general criteria are not necessarily met. This includes the circumstances under which the names of veterans may also be considered.