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
Bangor Cathedral – Gwynedd
Bangor cathedral church has a very long history dating back to the foundation of Deniol's cell in the sixth century. It suffered at the hands of the Vikings and the English. It still stands and has it's own cross from the Battlefields of the First World War. The name...
Ranmore – St Barnabus, Surrey
A curious pair of crosses both for the same man. Henry Cubitt Cross 1 Location: St Barnabas Ranmore Surrey RH5 6SP Details on cross: Captain H. A. Cubitt 3rd.Bn. Coldstream Guards Killed in Action 15.9.16 Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): Text is carved...
Harefield, St Mary, Uxbridge, London.
J Montague Location Countess Close Harefield, Uxbridge UB9 6DL Details on cross: 1.F.9 5281 PTE. J. MONTAGUE 9TH ROYAL FUSILIERS 30-6-17 Text type: GRU tags Cross dimensions Currently Unknown – appears to be a standard British Army Cross. Other information: Currently...
Bridlington Priory Church – East Yorkshire
George Bell Purvis Location Bridlington Priory Church, Church Green, Bridlington, East Yorkshire, Y016 7JX Details on cross: CAPT G B PURVIS 8-6-17 56-M G C Text type: GRU tags Cross dimensions Currently Unknown - appears to be a standard British Army Cross. Other...
Fusiliers Museum of Northumberland
Francis Harry Harvey Location: Fusiliers Museum of Northumberland Alnwick Castle Alnwick Northumberland NE66 1NG Museum website Museum is located within the Alnwick Castle grounds in Abbot Tower. The cross is in its own lighted display cabinet, on the wall, on the...
Greens Norton – St Bartholomew’s Church, Northamptonshire
William Geoffrey Walford Location: St Bartholomew’s Church Greens Norton Northamptonshire NN12 8BN Details on cross: In Memory Capt WG Walford, 62 Squad. R.A.F. Killed in Action 4th Nov 1918 Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): Hand written in Black Cross...
Carisbrooke Cemetery – Isle of Wight
Unknown Location: Carisbrooke Cemetery (Mount Joy cemetery). Isle of Wight PO30 1YS Details on crosses: Three crosses standing against chapel wall, below a stone plaque which reads 1915 HERO’S CORNER IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO FELL IN THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN Their duty...
Beddington – St Mary’s
PHILIP MIGHELL Location: St Mary’s Church, Beddington, Surrey SM6 7NJ Details on cross: IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY BROTHER LIEUT PHILIP MIGHELL 9th EAST SURREYS ATTACHED TO ROYAL FLYING CORPS BORN 1893 DIED OF WOUNDS AT AGNES- LES DUISANS 12.10.17 Plaque at base of cross...
On the blog
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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
