THE PROJECT
THE HISTORY
THE SURVEY
LOCATIONS
Update
Hello all, this project is still open but is currently hibernating. We would love to complete it, but this is very dependent on time and whether we can secure additional funding to pursue it.
Thanks to everyone who has been involved, including those who still are, and all those who visit and comment or share, it has so far been a terrific success, we hope to extend that in the future.
In the meantime we fully intend to keep the site live in its current form, and are still taking any info you have with a view to one day finishing the database as time allows.
Nick & Tim. April 2023.
Recent marker reports
Southwell Minster – Nottinghamshire
John Pickard Becher Location: Southwell Minster 4 Vicars Court Town/village: Southwell County: Notts Postcode: NG25 0HD Position: On outside of rear garden wall of 4 Vicars Court, hidden by tree, immediately opposite eastern end of Southwell Minster Details on cross:...
Hooton – St Pauls, Cheshire
UNKNOWN BRITISH SOLDIER Location: St. Pauls Church Hooton Wirral Cheshire CH66 1QF Details on cross: GRU tag at top of shaft slanting from left to right 13 H 14. Metal tag on cross member Unknown British Soldier. There is a small plaque below the cross member 1914...
North Berwick – St Baldred’s, East Lothian
WILLIAM GILBERT HOULDSWORTH & ARCHIBALD SEYMOUR ROSS Location: St Baldred’s Episcopal Church Direlton Avenue, North Berwick East Lothian EH39 4AY Cross 1 WILLIAM GILBERT HOULDSWORTH On the cross beam: WOUNDED LIEUT. W.G. HOULDSWORTH DIED SEPT 13TH SCOTS GUARDS...
Nannerch – St. Michael and All Angels, Sir Y Flint
Walter Digby Buddicom Location: St. Michael and All Angels Church Nannerch, Flintshire, Wales CH7 5RD Details on cross: GRU tag at top of cross. GRU On cross member are 3 metal tags inscribed Lieut W D Buddicom MC, 4th Hussars, 6th June 1918. Below the cross member is...
Aldershot Garrison Church – Hampshire
1ST DIVISION Location: Aldershot Garrison Church Aldershot Hampshire GU11 1QA Details on cross: Standard cross with four cross-pieces surrounding the intersection of the main shaft and the main cross beam. The cross is mounted on top (and partly into) a concrete base...
Sutton Bonnington – St Annes Church, Nottinghamshire
WILLIAM GADD BALL Location: St Annes Church Sutton Bonnington Nottinghamshire LE12 5NJ Details on cross: In MEMORY OF W. G. BALL ROYAL RIP FUSILIER AGED 19 YEARS WHO WAS KILLED IN ACTION AT ARRAS APRIL 9th 1917 Text type (e.g. hand-written,...
Hawarden – St. Deiniols Church, Cheshire
Herbert Hamilton Croft Location: St. Deiniols Church Hawarden Nr. Chester Flintshire Wales CH5 3LT Details on cross: No GRU tags but a more recent looking small brass plaque: Driver H. Crofts RASC age 21. Died 10.2.19 Dunkirk. Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags,...
Rottingdean – St Margaret’s Church, East Sussex
Harry Gaston and Walter Henry Holden There are 2 grave markers at St Margaret's church commemorating Private Harry Gaston (13th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 38th Welsh Division) and Private Walter Henry Holden (Worcester Regiment, 25th Division, 3rd Battalion)....
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About the project
Wooden Battlefield Crosses and grave markers exist all across Great Britain and indeed across the world. You can find them in churches, memorial halls, chapels, museums and private dwellings. Although various lists exist there is no definitive study of them; the available information is often buried in collections of other memorials. These are deeply personal connections with the people involved in the conflict and form a direct link to the families, loved ones and communities who were left behind.
The aim of this project is to try and provide an online resource which creates a place to find the information about these curious objects, where they exist, how to access them and what they meant a century ago, how they continue to be part of the communities they still exist in and how people continue to engage and respond to them as a link the link to First World War.
Ultimately the intention is to list every single battlefield cross or wooden grave marker returned from the lines in Europe to Great Britain after the war ended. The website will hopefully provide a resource that will give everyone access to information on as many of the locations and as much detail as possible about the stories surrounding the people whose graves they marked in France and their symbolic return to the people they left behind.
We need your help…
You can send us information on your local wooden crosses and battlefield markers, whether it be your own photos, photos you have permission to use from a local archive, details of the building and how the marker has become part of the story of it. We also need your research on the soldiers, their life and service, their families, the incidents surrounding their death and the eventual return of the grave marker to Britain and back to the community where the person came from.
We have provided an easy guide to help you to survey, photograph and research these sites and a rough but growing list of locations which we will hopefully be building on as more information comes to light. We will also be putting together an online guide looking at how and where to research the stories of the men these crosses are named for and how you might be able to look into the story behind them to build an online collection which everyone can use to explore these fascinating memorials.
Contact us
Have you done a survey or do you fancy having a go at one? Maybe you aren’t sure what to do or maybe you have already completed some research on a battlefield cross you’d like to add to the project or share via the website.
Perhaps you think you may have something nobody has seen in nearly a century in your loft or shed? Let us know.
Please send us an email to info@thereturned.co.uk
