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
Toxteth – St. Bedes and St Clemence, Merseyside
Location: St. Bedes and St Clemence Toxteth Merseyside L8. Details on cross: GRU tag at top of main shaft angled left to right I.W.G.C. Metal GRU strip on cross member UNKNOWN BRITISH SOLDIER Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): GRU tags. Cross...
Mells – St Andrew’s Church, Somerset
Location: St Andrew's Church, Mells, Somerset, BA11 3PW An interesting site as it contains two battlefield crosses and a large memorial as well as burials for Siegfried Sassoon, Ronald Knox, Sir Maurice Bonham Carter, Baroness Asquith, George A. Birmingham (aka James...
Cumbria’s Museum of Military Life – Carlisle, Cumbria
Henry Bell Cumbria's Museum of Military Life Alma Block, The Castle, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA3 8UR T 01228 532774 enquiries@cmoml.org www.cumbriasmuseumofmilitarylife.org Details on Cross GRU Cartouche GRU GRU Tags CAPTAIN BELL 5 BORDERS 26 - 1 - 17 Text: GRU Tags Marker...
East Horsley – St. Martin’s churchyard, Surrey
Frederick Thomas Longhurst “Thoughts of Laventie from home” Location: St. Martin’s churchyard East Horsley Surrey KT24 6RL Details on cross: IWGC 330 99 L/CPL. LONGHURT. 2/8 WORCESTERS. 3.9.18 PLACED ON MOTHER’S GRAVE FROM LAVENTIE CEMETERY RHODA LONGHURST Text type...
Halifax – St Hilda’s Church, West Yorkshire
Unknown British Soldier Location: St Hilda’s Church, Gibraltar road, Halifax West Yorkshire HX1 4HE Details on cross: At top of vertical GRU Cartouche states simply: GRU Across the horizontal arm Unknown British Soldier just below. (could this be a grave location in...
Rossett – Christ Church, Wrexham (Clwyd)
Unknown British Soldier Christ Church Graveyard, Rossett, Nr. Wrexham Wrexham County borough (Clwyd) LL12 0GD Details on cross: This is a replica cross made in 1999 unfortunately we could not find out any more about it. There is only the cross member remaining of the...
Upper Langwith – Holy Cross, Derbyshire
George William Nixon Location: Rectory Road Upper Langwith Mansfield Derbyshire NG20 9RE Details on Cross: In memory of No 38665 Gnr G W Nixon 4th Bty M.M.G.S Killed in action April 28th 1918 Dimensions: Shaft height: 1600mm (63 inches) Cross beam width: 610mm (24...
Penicuik – St James the Less, Midlothian
Charles John Alexander Cowan Location: St James the Less Broomhill Road, Penicuik Midlothian EH26 9EE Details on cross: Tag at top of shaft – I.W.G.C. Three lines of metal tags: CAPT. COWAN. 12/R. SCOTS. 25.3.18. Text type: GRU metal tags Cross dimensions...
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
