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
Babworth – All Saints’ Church, Nottinghamshire
Major Henry Denison D.S.O. (Possibly) Location: All Saints’ Church, Babworth, Nottinghamshire, DN22 8ES Details on cross: IN LOVING MEMORY OF KILLED IN ACTION Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): Painted Cross dimensions (millimetres...
Bridlington – Priory Church, Yorkshire
George Purvis Location address : Bridlington Priory Church, The Rectory, Church Green, Bridlington, YO16 7JX Details on cross (Text content of cross): Capt G B Purvis 8.6.17 56 M G C Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): GRU Cross dimensions (millimetres...
Llanwenllwyfo – St. Gwenllwyfo, North Wales
Major Arundell Neave Location: St Gwenllwyfo, Llanwenllwyfo, Amlwch, Gwynedd, LL68 9ET Details on cross: No Details on cross. Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved):No tags on cross Cross dimensions (millimetres please) Measurements are...
Epsom – Epsom College Chapel, Surrey
2/ LT. T. F. JEFFERY Location address : Epsom College Chapel, Epsom, Surrey KT17 4JQ Details on cross (Text content of cross): 2/ LT. T. F. JEFFERY R.F.A 16.4.18 Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): GRU Cross dimensions (millimetres please) N/A Other...
East Tuddenham, All Saints Church, Norfolk
Privates George and Stanley Turner Location: All Saints Church, East Tuddenham, Norfolk, NR20 3NB Details on cross: (GRU tags) 61649 Pte S Turner Died of Wounds 5th June 1917 103rd Labour Coy 2962 (Hand painted later) RIP AND PTE G TURNER Died...
Sancreed – St Creden Church, Cornwall
William Alexander Stanhope-Forbes Location : Sancreed: St Creden, Sancreed, Cornwall, TR20 8QS Details on cross: GRU tag at head of cross In memory of William Alexander Stanhope-Forbes 2nd Lieut 1st Btn DCLI Killed in Action Sept 3rd 1916 Two carved...
Great Waltham – St Mary & St Lawrence Church, Essex
CAPT. A. N. FALKNER Location: St Mary & St Lawrence Church Great Waltham Essex CM3 1AR Details on cross: G.R.U. CAPT. A. N. FALKNER 8 L. N. LANCS. REGT. DIED 20.7.16. Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): GRU tags Cross dimensions...
Westwell – St Mary: Westwell, Kent
WILLIAM HAFFENDEN WINCH Location address St Mary: Westwell The Street, Westwell, Kent, TN254JX Details on cross This is a stone cross with a modern tag reading: 2nd LIEUTENANT WILLIAM HAFFENDEN WINCH 5th BUFFS DIED OF HIS WOUNDS MESOPOTAMIA...
On the blog
Captain Henry Skrine
The chill evening air of late September 1915 seeped through the greatcoats of the remaining men of A Company, 6th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry. They had seen a day of terrible fighting that had killed five of their number and wounded many more. Not far from the...
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
