As reports of the grave registration work became public , the Commission began to receive letters of enquiry and requests for photographs of graves from relatives of deceased soldiers . By 1917 , 17 @,@ 000 photographs had been dispatched to relatives . In March 1915 , the Commission , with the support of the Red Cross , began to dispatch photographic prints and cemetery location information in answer to the requests . The Graves Registration Commission became the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries in the spring of 1916 in recognition of the fact that the scope of work began to extend beyond simple grave registration and began to include responding to enquiries from relatives of those killed . The directorate 's work was also extended beyond the Western Front and into other theatres of war , with units deployed in Greece , Egypt and Mesopotamia .