People will be able to find out more about the stories behind the graves of servicemen and women in Gillingham using a high-tech information panel.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is installing the panel at Woodlands Cemetery to raise awareness of the sacrifices made by servicemen and women in the world wars.

It is among 500 the Commission is erecting as part of a drive to provide more information for the public during the centenary of the First World War.

Each of the panels carries information about the site of the cemetery or memorial, and the reason why it is situated where it is.

Each panel also carries a QR (Quick Response) code which, when scanned with a smartphone, provides access to further information, including the personal stories of some of the casualties buried or commemorated at the location.

The Commission’s Peter Francis said: “Our cemeteries and memorials will be the focus for many acts of remembrance over the coming years and this initiative will help inform visitors of the historical context which brought these places into being, while putting a human face to the names of those who died.

"It is a powerful means of combining traditional methods with new technology to ensure we never forget.”

The QR code at Woodlands Cemetery panel reveals the stories of Lieutenant Erle Britt Trotter who was “gazetted” on three occasions for his actions and during the First World War and the story of Able Seaman Alfred Taylor who was mortally wounded during the Zeebrugge raid in April 1918.

The cemetery contains 834 burials and commemorations dating from the First World War, of which 82 are unidentified, and 380 from the Second World War - including the graves of six women who died while serving with the Women’s Royal Naval Service, the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, and Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service.

The large naval section in the cemetery was reserved by the Admiralty and served the Royal Naval Hospital in Windmill Road.

This section contains most of the cemetery’s war graves. Among the First World War burials in the naval section are those of men who were mortally wounded when HMS Bulwark blew up in Sheerness Harbour in November 1914.

The naval section is also the final resting place of members of the crews of HMS Princess Irene, which suffered an internal explosion in May 1915, and HMS Glatton which suffered the same fate in Dover Harbour in September 1918.

Almost 100 burials in the cemetery are of servicemen killed in the first night-time air raid on the Medway towns of Gillingham and Chatham on September 3, 1917.

The panel will be unveiled at the cemetery at 12.30pm today (Wednesday).