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
Woodbridge Old Cemetery – Suffolk
Geoffrey Charles Drury Theobald Location Woodbridge Old Cemetery, Warren Hill Road, Woodbridge, IP12 4DZ Details on Cross: In Memorium Geoffrey C.D. Theobald Staff Sergeant A.O.C. Died of Wounds March 6th; 1917 From his Comrades: the Officers N.C.O’s and Men 146 Siege...
Inverness – St Stephen’s Church, Inverness-shire
6th Battalion Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders Location: Old High St Stephen’s Church Church Street, Inverness Inverness shire IV1 1EY NOTE: The cross is a collective memorial to the officers and men of 6th Battalion Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders who fell at the...
Malvern Priory – Worcestershire
Location: Malvern Priory Malvern Worcestershire WR14 2AY There are no longer any crosses in Malvern Priory. Until recently there were 11 crosses outside at the East End of the Priory. The remaining bases are in the photographs All bar one of the crosses disintegrated...
Melby – Shetland
Unknown Location: St Margaret’s Church (now disused) Melby Shetland Details on cross: On the cross beam 1917 Text type Carved Cross dimensions (millimetres please) Shaft Height: 630 Cross beam width: 510 Width of wood: 110 Thickness or depth: 50 Other information...
Princes Road Synangogue, Broadgreen, Liverpool, Merseyside
Unknown Jewish Soldier Location: Broadgreen Cemetery, Thomas Drive, Liverpool Merseyside L14 3LF Location: As you go through the gate of the cemetery, there is a small red brick building on the left hand side (An Ohel - Prayer House). The cross is mounted on the wall...
Portland Basin Museum – Ashton under Lyne
Colin Reveley Bradshaw Location Portland Basin Museum, 1 Portland Place, Ashton-under-Lyne Tameside Greater Manchester OL7 0QA Displayed in glass case with associated First World War ephemera in the museum. From a press release 5th July 2016 The Portland Basin display...
Leavenheath – St Matthew’s Church, Suffolk
Location: St Matthew’s Church, Leavenheath, Suffolk, CO6 4PT. Leavenheath is curious. Seven crosses, one of which commemorates someone who died in a U-boat attack off Gallipoli who was unlikely to have had a cross being lost at sea. They are uniform in appearance and...
Alfrick – Mary Magdalene, Worcestershire
Location Church of Mary Magdalene Alfrick Worcestershire WR6 5HH Details on cross: Unknown British Soldier Text type (tags, carved) Tag is pressed tin 130mm long – lettering similar to old Dymo machines Cross dimensions in mm Shaft Height 1140 (approximate...
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
