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
Museum of Liverpool
Location: Museum of Liverpool, Liverpool, Merseyside, L3 1DG. The museum is well worth a visit, the website is here. There are two crosses in the collections, both displayed and wall-mounted . Frederick Alexander Beer (Cross 1) Details on cross: Small metal tag at top...
Gunton – St Peter’s, Suffolk
Frederic Raymond Charlesworth Location: St Peter’s Church Town/village: Gunton County: Suffolk Postcode: NR32 4LB Details on cross: G.R.U. CAPT. W.F. CHARLESWORTH 25 R.W. FUS. 19.9.18 Text type: GRU tags Cross dimensions (millimetres please) Shaft Height: 1000 Cross...
Middlewich – St Michael and All Angels, Cheshire
Arthur Sheppard Location: St Michael and All Angels Town/village: Middlewich County: Cheshire Postcode: CW10 9AN Details on cross: First metal strip, diagonally ascending left to right at the top of the cross I.W.G.C. Second metal strip 752 . SGT . A . SHEPHARD. D . C...
Salisbury – St Thomas Becket, Wiltshire
F.W. BURGES Location: St Thomas a Beckett Town/village: Salisbury County: Wiltshire Postcode: SP1 1BA Details on cross: IWGC metal tags: IWGC 5297 L/CPL F.W. BURGES 20 / BTN A.I.F 1/3/17 Cross dimensions Shaft height: 1066 mm Cross Beam width: 412mm Width of wood:...
Arrow – Holy Trinity, Warwickshire
Lord Edward Beauchamp Seymour Location: Holy Trinity Church Town/village: Arrow County: Warwickshire Postcode: B49 5PP Details on cross: GRU tag: 6 B 11 HERE LIES Lord Edward B Seymour Lord Strathcona's Horse Died of Wounds 5-12-17 Received in Action 2-12-17 Text...
Great Snoring – St Mary, Norfolk
Charles Ramsey Bayly Location: St. Mary’s church Town/village: Great Snoring County: Norfolk Postcode: NR21 0HW Details on cross: On Cross beam. LIEUT. C. R. BAYLY. R.F.A. 128th Bty On shaft: KILLED IN ACTION March 29th 1918 Text type: Hand painted text in white....
Warkworth – St Marys, Oxfordshire
J. W. SCOTT Location: St. Mary's church Town/village: Warkworth County: Oxfordshire Postcode: OX17 2AG Details on cross: 3 metal tags. LT/COL. J. W. SCOTT. D.S.O 8/SOMERSET. L. I 23-4-17. Text type: GRU TAGS Cross dimensions Shaft Height: 1460 mm Cross beam width: 680...
Manaton – St Winifred, Devon
John Gibbons Location: St Winifreds Church Town/village: Manaton County: Devon Postcode: TQ13 9UJ Details on cross: 2nd Lieut J Gibbons 6th Battn Dorsets 6th June 1917 Text type: Stamped G.R.U tag fixed with small nails. Cross dimensions Shaft Height: 930mm Cross beam...
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
