According to an Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) report, the original object of the unit was to "search for British wounded and missing in the district which had been overrun by the Germans during the retreat from Mons, and to convey them back to the British lines or to a British base". However, by early October 1914, the unit had begun extensively working with the French and handling their casualties. By mid-October, Ware's unit had added a medical staff and mobile light hospital. That month Ware visited an extension of the Béthune cemetery which had British graves not maintained and some not even recorded. He soon convinced the Red Cross to fund durable grave markers. By December, the unit had dealt with more than four thousand wounded soldiers.