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
Naunton – St Andrew’s Church, Gloucestershire
John Bartlett Location: St Andrew's Church Naunton Gloucestershire GL54 3AX Details on cross: On shaft, above cross beam: 274 R G A On crossbeam: GUNR J.BARTLETT On shaft underneath crossbeam: 110951 Interred in France Text type: black paint Cross Dimensions: Shaft...
Burford – St John the Baptist, Oxfordshire
Arthur Septimus Conway Location: St John the Baptist Church Burford Oxfordshire OX18 4RY Details on cross: At the top of the shaft: It appears a GRU tag was once affixed to the cross but has been lost. 701 On the crossbeam: 1 /N. STAFFS. Text type: GRU tags Cross...
Broughton Poggs, St Peters – Oxfordshire
12 named and 78 unnamed men of the 52nd Lt Infantry. Broughton Poggs is a little hamlet tagged onto the edge of a larger (but still small) village called Filkins in Oxfordshire. It has only around 10 houses, yet it took us almost 40 minutes in a car to find the church...
Formby – St Peter’s Church, Merseyside
Officers of the 12th King Regiment Location: St. Peter's Church Green Lane Formby Merseyside L37 7DL Details on cross: This is a large white wooden cross. It is inscribed: 'In memory of the following officers of the 12th Kings who gave their lives near this spot Sept...
Framlingham College Chapel – Suffolk
Gordon Flowerdew Location: Framlingham College Chapel Framlingham Suffolk IP13 9EY Details on cross: small GRU plot locator on upper shaft. H-1 Three GRU tags on cross piece: Captain G. M. Flowerdew Lord Strathcona’s Horse 31-03-18 Text type (e.g. hand-written,...
Bromborough – St Barnabas Church, Cheshire
Unknown British Soldier Location: St Barnabas Church Bromborough Wirral Cheshire CH62 7AA Details on cross: GRU metal strip at top of cross, Metal strip on cross member Unknown British Soldier Text type: GRU tags Cross dimensions (millimetres please) Approximate...
Herne – St Martin’s Church, Kent
WILLIAM CHARLES WOOLLETT Location: St Martin Church. Herne, Herne Bay Kent CT6 7HN Details on the cross: silver plaque with the following text: CAPT W.C. WOOLLETT K.O.Y.L.I Gold square plaque located part way down the bottom section of the cross has the following...
Catherine’s Court – Batheaston, Somerset
Richard Neville Strutt Location: St Catherines Church Catherine's Court Batheaston Somerset BA1 8HA Details on cross: Hard to read due to fading - on cross beam Z T (?) Strutt, on shaft 2 Lt Strutt R Scots - maybe cross beam by German and rest added later? Text...
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
