The scale , and associated high number of casualties , of the war produced an entirely new attitude towards the commemoration of war dead . Previous to World War I , individual commemoration of war dead was often on an ad hoc basis and was almost exclusively limited to commissioned officers . However , the war required mobilisation of a significant percentage of the population , either as volunteers or through conscription . An expectation had consequently arisen that individual soldiers would expect to be commemorated , even if they were low @-@ ranking members of the military . A committee under Frederic Kenyon , Director of the British Museum , presented a report to the Commission in November 1918 detailing how it envisioned the development of the cemeteries . Two key elements of this report were that bodies should not be repatriated and that uniform memorials should be used to avoid class distinctions . Beyond the logistical nightmare of returning home so many corpses , it was felt that repatriation would conflict with the feeling of brotherhood that had developed between serving ranks .