Benches Built for a Place of Remembrance in Crete

Posted on May 27, 2026

A few weeks ago we shared the story of two York benches beginning their journey from East Yorkshire to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Suda Bay in Crete.

Now, after travelling more than 2,000 miles, one of those benches has finally been installed.

And despite receiving just two photographs and the wonderfully understated message:

“It looks wonderful!!”

…we think that probably tells us everything we need to know.

Click on the pictures to enlarge

Set amongst the bright Mediterranean pink flowering Oleanders in the immaculate grounds of Suda Bay War Cemetery, the bench now provides visitors with somewhere quiet to sit, pause and reflect within one of the CWGC’s most significant sites in the eastern Mediterranean.

Suda Bay War Cemetery contains the graves of more than 1,500 Commonwealth servicemen, many connected with the Battle of Crete, the wider Mediterranean campaign and the naval operations that took place in the area during the Second World War. The cemetery is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, whose work preserves places of remembrance for visitors from all over the world.

From the photographs, the bench appears to have been positioned looking towards the cemetery grounds and, most likely, towards the Cross of Sacrifice — the prominent memorial feature found within many Commonwealth war cemeteries around the world.

There is something rather fitting about the simplicity of the York bench in a setting like this. No ornate detailing. No unnecessary flourishes. Just solid timber craftsmanship designed to quietly do its job for decades to come.

Click on the pictures to enlarge

When the benches originally left our workshop, Mike packed spare seat slats alongside them “just in case”.

As he put it:

“I doubt they will need them but just in case. It’s a long way to Crete!”

Thankfully, it seems the benches arrived safely.

While we are still waiting to discover where the second bench has been installed within the cemetery grounds, it is genuinely rewarding to know that furniture made here in East Yorkshire now forms a small part of a place visited by people from across the world to remember those who lost their lives.

Sometimes a bench is simply a bench.

And sometimes it becomes part of somewhere far more important.