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
Garboldisham, St John the Baptist, Norfolk
George Frederick Molyneux Montgomerie Location: St John the Baptist Town/village: Garboldisham County: Norfolk Postcode: IP22 2SE Details on cross: GRU tags on top upright G.R.U L 42 Painted on circle IN LOVING MEMORY MAJOR G.F.M MONTGOMERIE 3rd Battalion Grenadier...
Childrey – St Mary’s, Oxfordshire
Location: St Marys Church Town: Childrey, Vale Of White Horse County: Oxfordshire Postcode: OX12 9PQ Details on cross: GRU tag affixed to the top. Wording: RICKMAN ENGL. KAPITAINE GEF. 26.8.14 At the bottom of the cross, affixed engraved brass plaque (photo attached)...
Kemerton – St Nicholas, Gloucestershire
Raymond Cecil Smith Location St Nicholas church, Church Lane Town/Village Kemerton County Gloucestershire Postcode GL20 7HX Details on cross: 4 GRU tags 6.10.18 54040 PTE R C SMITH SOUTH STAFFS REGT I.W.G.C Text type: GRU Tags Cross dimensions in mm Shaft Height 580...
Halifax – Duke of Wellingtons museum
Location: Duke of Wellington’s museum Address: Akroyd Park, Boothtown Rd, Halifax County: Yorkshire Postcode: HX3 6HG. The cross was originally in Reninghelst church, just west of Ypres. The typed citation beneath the cross reads: This memorial to the officers and a...
Dailly Parish Church – Ayrshire
Robert Inglis Location: Dailly Parish Church Town/village: Main Street, Dailly County: Ayrshire Postcode: KA26 9SD Details on cross: On the cross beam: LIEUT R INGLIS 13TH – BLACK WATCH Text type: GRU Metal tags, corroded Cross dimensions (millimetres please) Shaft...
Weasenham St Peter – Norfolk
John Gilbert Overman Location: St Peter's church Town/village: Weasenham St Peter County: Norfolk Postcode: PE30 4AF Details on cross: At head of cross 'GRU' On plate 2nd Lieut A/Captain John Gilbert Overman 9th Batt KOYLI killed in action Sep 9th 1918 Aged 21 years'...
The Royal Military Police Museum – Hampshire
PHILIP GIESLER Norbury Location: The Royal Military Police Museum Town/village: Defence College of Policing and Guarding, Southwick Park, Fareham County: Hampshire Postcode: PO17 6EJ Details on cross: Metal Tags. GRU Lt R (should be P) G Norbury. 7/Buffs 1/7/1916....
Gloucester Regimental Museum – Gloucestershire
Location Gloucester docks, 31 commercial Road Town/Village Gloucester County Gloucestershire Postcode GL1 2HE White painted cross with circle. Blacked stencilled letting on both upright and on cross beam, with a motif or design on the 4 circle quadrants. Details on...
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
