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
Batsford – St Mary’s Church, Gloucestershire
Clement Freeman-Mitford Location: St Mary's Church Batsford Moreton-in-Marsh Gloucestershire GL56 9QB Details on cross: GRU tag at top of shaft. On the shaft, just above the cross beam, is a coloured, painted insignia of the 10th (Prince of Wales's Own) Royal Hussars....
Walton – St Lukes Church, Merseyside
Unknown British Soldier Location: St.Lukes Church, 16 Goodison Road Walton, Liverpool Merseyside L4 4EL Details on cross: The cross is dedicated to an Unknown British Soldier WGC UNKNOWN BRITISH SOLDIER Location: It is positioned near the altar on the right side of...
Chedworth – St Andrew’s, Gloucestershire
UNKNOWN BRITISH SOLDIER Location: St Andrew's Church Chedworth Gloucestershire GL54 4AD Details on cross: Two GRU tags on the top of the shaft. GRU 55D9 One GRU tag on the cross beam which reads: UNKNOWN BRITISH SOLDIER Cross Dimensions: Shaft Height: 740mm Cross Beam...
Winterborne Came, St Peter – Dorset
The Hon George Seymour Dawson-Damer Location St Peter’s Church, Winterborne Came, Dorset, DT2 8NT Details of Cross Top finial carved with R.I.P KILLED IN ACTION 13th APRIL 1917 2nd Lt. HON G DAWSON-DAMER Xth ROYAL HUSSARS Text is carved apart from a metal tag with the...
Radipole – Church of St Anne, Dorset
Captain Hussey Burgh George Macartney – Royal Fusiliers Location: Church of St Ann Radipole, Weymouth Dorset Details on Cross Plain Cross Text on metal tags G.R.U. - - CAPT. R.B.G. MACCARTNEY. 1/ ROY. FUS. 25-6-15 No dimensions taken as the cross is mounted high on...
Wirral – Christchurch, Moreton, Cheshire
Unknown British Soldier Location: Christchurch Moreton Wirral Cheshire CH46 0SG Details on cross: small piece of metal near top of shaft slanting upwards left to right with initials: IWGC. Large metal strip on cross member states UNKNOWN BRITISH SOLDIER Text type: GRU...
Barking – St Mary’s Church, Suffolk
Charles Edward De La Bere Location St Mary’s ChurchParson's Lane Barking with Darmsden, Suffolk, IP6 8HJ Details on the Cross: Metal Tag: G.R.U. Black painted lettering – very dark and difficult to read even using a torch. At top pf the shaft: R.I.P. IN...
Liverpool – St Barnabus, Penny Lane
Unknown soldier Location: St Barnabus Church Town/village: Penny Lane, Liverpool County: Merseyside Postcode: L18 1 EL Details on cross: 1 long metal GRU strip on cross member stating: Unknown British soldier Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): GRU tag...
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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
