In May 1917 the Commonwealth War Graves Commission was established by Royal Charter. That same year, the need for a cemetery for serviceman and woman who died in the London area was recognised and Brookwood Military Cemetery was established. The men and woman buried in Brookwood died in hospitals in the London area from wounds received on the Western Front, of sickness, or in training accidents. The cemetery was later extended for the burial of Second World War casualties.
Brookwood Military Cemetery is split into sections according to nationality and the war in which the casualty died. Its is unique among Commonwealth war cemeteries in containing two Stones of Remembrance and two Crosses of Sacrifice.
This multi-cache visits several of those sections at which you need to find the necessary information to find the final cache, which is hidden close by. It should be possible to complete this multi-cache in about 1 hour.
Please note that the cemetery closes at 7.30 pm in the summer and 4 pm in the winter (or dusk if earlier).
The initial coordinates are for the entrance to the cemetery where it is possible to park.
Stage 1. Go to N51 18.012 W000 38.452. On the Brookwood Memorial here a number is spelt out in words.(ABCD)
Stage 2. Go to N51 18.081 W000 38.312. In the French section here you will find 1 grave which is different from the adjacent ones - what is the two digit number on the bottom of the headstone? (EF)
Stage 3. Go to N51 18.045 W000 38.279. At the Czechoslovak memorial count the number of large trees that in the row closest to the road, between the RAF shelter in the east and the white wall to the west. (G)
Stage 4. Go to N51 18.055 W000 38.272. How many letters in the first line of the text on the Polish memorial (HJ)
Stage 5. Go to N51 18.057 W000 38.260. How many lines of text are there on the Belgian memorial here (K)
Stage 6. Go to N51 18.067 W000 38.236. You are standing in front of the RAF Shelter Building which was designed by Edward Maufe, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's principal architect for the United Kingdom after the Second World War. Count the total number of panes of glass in the small windows on the front of the building (LM).
Stage 7. Go to N51 18.082 W000 38.241. Here there is a row of 8 Netherlands Air Force graves. Some of these are inscribed with a squadron number. (NPQ)
Stage 8. Go to N51 18.136 W000 38.243.. Here lies 20216 T A Knowles - how old was he when he died? (RS)
Stage 9. Go to N51 18.097 W000 38.317 How many German headstones appear here in a row? (T)
Stage 10. Go to N51 18.100 W000 38.336 Here you will find the grave of someone who died on the final day of WW1. How old was he? (UV)
Stage 11. Go to N51 18.101 W000 38.399 Here there is a five word inscription above the door. How many letters are there in the fourth word? (W)
Stage 12. Go to N51 18.050 W000 38.368 At the Italian memorial how many letters are there in the second line of the inscription? (X)
The final cache location can be found a short distance outside the cemetery at:
N 51 L(A+B-C-D).(J-H-G)(E+F)(K-M) W 000. (N+Q)(P+R+S).(T-H)(X-V-U)W
As a check, the checksum of all 15 digits of the coordinates is 44.