 The law was passed by the French government on 29 December 1917 after objections in the senate were resolved.It gave Britain the ability to control their war graves in "perpetuity of sepulture" and provided for the establishment of a British authority to manage the cemeteries.When Will Gladstone, a Member of Parliament and the grandson of former Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, was killed in action near Laventie on 13 April 1915, his family attempted to have the body exhumed and returned to England.