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
Brocklesby – All Saints, Lincolnshire
Charles Sackville Pelham, Lord Worsley British Cross Location: All Saints Town/village: Brocklesby County: North Lincolnshire Postcode: DN41 8PN Details on cross: R.I.P Lord Worsley R.H.G Oct 30th 1914 Text type: Stamped G.R.U tag fixed with two small nails, Incised...
Norton sub Hamdon – St Mary the Virgin, Somerset
Unknown Soldier Location: Church of St Mary the Virgin Town/village: Norton Sub Hamdon County: Somerset Postcode: TA14 6SU Details on cross: A – 15 (printed on diagonal tag top of the main shaft.) Unknown British Soldier (on metal GRU tag) Cross dimensions Unable to...
South Cerney – All Hallows, Gloucestershire
John Whitcombe Location: All Hallows' Church Village: South Cerney County: Gloucestershire Postcode: GL7 5TT Details: (GRU tag on top of vertical shaft) 15193 L/CPL J.WHITCOMBE R.C.D. 6/ F. GARRY HORSE DIED OF WOUNDS 1/7/15 Text type: GRU tags Cross Dimensions Shaft...
Donhead St Andrew – St Andrew, Wiltshire
Nicholas Weatherby Hill Location: St Andrews Church Town/village: St. Bartholomew Street, Donhead St. Andrew, County: Wiltshire Postcode: SP7 9EB Details on cross: Top part of shaft there is the following: GRU tag which reads: GRU5 painted Light Infantry Insignia In a...
Montrose Air Station museum – Angus
John Ross Robertson (2) Location: Montrose Air Station museum Town/village: Waldron Road, Montrose County: Angus Postcode: DD10 9BD Details on cross: Starting at the top of the shaft: Small metal GRU plate stamped with G R U, two small nails (painted): ERS TARB DEN...
Dunfermline Cemetery – Fife
John Ross Robertson This is a rather exceptional example of multiple memorials for one person within a family. Scott has researched this memorial and the twin of it that this is based on at Montrose. Location: Dunfermline Cemetery, Town/village: Halbeath Road,...
Billingsley – St Mary, Shropshire
Harold Walter Gibbs Location: St Mary's Church Town/village: Billingsley County: Shropshire Postcode: WV16 6PH Details on cross: In Loving Memory Of Lieut. H.W. Gibbs Shrops R.H.A. Died Of Wounds 25.3.18 Text type: Writing is black on the white painted cross. Writing...
Thorington – St. Peter, Suffolk
Alfred Bence Trower Location: St. Peter’s Church Town/village: Thorington County: Suffolk Postcode: IP19 9JG Details on cross: At top of cross metal tag with G.R.U on it. Below that in diagonal banner style “In Memory Of” Name is in a central roundel decorated to look...
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
