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Every Veteran’s Grave, Kept by the Town — and a Flag on It Every Memorial Day

M.G.L. c.115 §9 puts a veterans’ graves officer in every city and town and makes that officer responsible for the care of every veteran’s grave inside it. Where private money does not cover the work, the municipality pays. A United States flag goes on those graves every Memorial Day.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

M.G.L. c.115 §9 puts a veterans’ graves officer in every city and town and makes that officer responsible for the care of every veteran’s grave inside it. Where private money does not cover the work, the municipality pays. A United States flag goes on those graves every Memorial Day.

What it's worth: Grave care at municipal expense where private funds do not cover it, and a United States flag every Memorial Day

  • §9 describes the care as clearing weeds and other unseemly growth, repairing, replacing and generally keeping up fences around the graves, raising and repairing sunken grave stones and markers, and other similar services necessary to restore and maintain the graves and their surroundings in an orderly condition.
  • The municipality pays only where the cost is not paid by private persons or by the trustees of the cemetery. Where money is paid over to cemetery trustees, the sum for each grave in any year may not exceed what that cemetery charges for annual care of like lots — or, where it makes no such charge, what other cemeteries in the same city or town charge for like services.
  • The Commonwealth reimburses cities and towns 75 per cent of the cost of the Memorial Day flags on the secretary’s approval, but none of the expense of placing them.
  • No dollar figure is published here because the value is the upkeep of a specific grave in a specific cemetery.

Who is entitled to it

  • The duty attaches to the grave of a veteran, so it is worth knowing about in advance.
  • A family member is usually the person who notices a grave falling into disrepair, and the officer is who they call.
  • Your home is in Massachusetts.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1Identify the city or town the grave sits in, not the one the family lives in. The duty follows the cemetery, and §9 speaks of every veteran’s grave "within such city or town".
  2. 2Ask the mayor’s office or the select board for the veterans’ graves officer. The appointment is a statutory duty, and the term the appointing authority sets may not exceed five years.
  3. 3If you are told there is no officer, ask again. §9 allows a spouse of a veteran or a member of a Gold Star family to be appointed where no qualified, willing and able veteran seeks the post — so the absence of a veteran candidate is not a reason for the post to sit empty.
  4. 4Describe the specific condition. The statute names weeds and unseemly growth, fences that need repair or replacement, and sunken stones and markers that need raising — those words are what the officer’s budget is written against.
  5. 5Ask who is paying before assuming nobody is. The municipality picks up the cost only where private persons or the cemetery trustees do not, so the officer may need to establish that first.
  6. 6Raise a missing Memorial Day flag with the same officer. In cities and towns with cemeteries containing the remains of deceased veterans, the municipality is required to cause a flag of the United States to be placed on those graves every Memorial Day.
  7. 7If the veteran is in a mausoleum, ask about the plaque. §9 requires a suitable plaque naming all deceased veterans contained in the mausoleum, and a flag suitably placed at the mausoleum every Memorial Day.
Form
None — contact the veterans’ graves officer
File with
The veterans’ graves officer of the city or town where the grave is, appointed by the mayor or the select board
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionThis has nothing to do with the two Commonwealth cemeteries. It reaches a veteran’s grave in any cemetery in any city or town in the Commonwealth, including a family plot in a small private burying ground.
Worth knowingThe municipality is the payer of last resort, not the first. Where the cemetery trustees or a private person are already paying for the care, §9 does not add a second payment — and where money is passed to trustees, the annual sum per grave is tied to what that cemetery charges for comparable lots.
Known gapThe statute creates the office in every city and town but names no central register of graves officers, and none was read this session. Expect to reach the post through the mayor’s office or the select board rather than through a statewide list.

Sources

Why only one source type: The duty is imposed by the statute directly on each city and town and is discharged by a municipal appointee, so there is no state administering page to read alongside it; the statutory text is the whole of the authority.

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.